To Restore the Baseline
by agnikai58
Summary: Nora's quest to find Shaun runs into a dead end prompting the Institute to take matters into their own hands. Unfortunately for her, the Institute's plans are more nefarious then she could ever imagine. Piper Wright/Female Sole Survivor. Rated M for explicit content and rape/non-con elements.
1. Fort Hagen

Authors Note: Chapter 4/5 contain explicit rape/non-consent scenes. Read at your own risk.

* * *

Since exiting the vault, her search had taken her through what had once been the state of Massachusetts. The state where she had grown up, all the places she had remembered, the schools she had attended. All of it, destroyed or reduced to a mere shadow of what had come before. She had searched high and low, questioned anyone she could and eventually it had led her to this military fort's basement.

Nora could feel her anger being to boil over as she glared balefully at the man who had stolen her son and murdered her husband. His bearded mug was exactly the same as it had been when he had been looking at her through the cryo pod's window. The left side of his face was disfigured by a large scar shaped like the letter 'L' and he reeked of cigar smoke and alcohol. "So where is it? Huh? This 'Institute'? How do I get there?"

Kellogg smirked at the questions "Heh. Haven't you been paying attention? You don't find the Institute. The Institute finds you. But I think we've been talking long enough. We both know how this has to end. So... you ready?"

Her knuckles began turning white as she squeezed the grip of her laser pistol. ' _I wasn't able to protect you or Shaun Nate, but at least I can find some justice for what this piece of shit did to our family.'_ "Oh I'm ready. Question is – are you?"

As soon as she finished speaking both of them reacted at the same time. Kellogg dived behind the desk to his right as her shot burned through the air where his chest had been. At almost the exact same moment she could hear the roar of Nick Valentine's submachine gun discharging as he opened fire on the synths accompanying Kellogg. Nora turned her pistol towards the nearest synth and fired twice before ducking behind cover herself. The first shot only hit the machine's shoulder, but the second burned it's way through the outer covering and severed what would have been the spinal cord in a human. Nick's bullets took care of the second as they left it's head partially shattered and filled with holes.

She could hear the second synth thrashing on the ground but put it out of her mind as she began creeping towards where Kellogg had hidden. Nora raised herself just high enough to see over the desk only to see him shimmer and disappear into thin air. "Nick, he just turned invisible somehow. Be careful!"

Nick's response was as straightforward as she had come to expect from the synthetic detective. "Probably a stealth boy so stay out of sight and listen. He's invisible, not silent." She ducked back down to a crouch and began slowly putting one foot in front of the other as she inched her way through the small maze of desks. Other than the broken synth, everything was quiet as she focused on listening — a muffled footstep, clothes rustling, an exhalation of breath or anything else that would give Kellogg's location away.

Her blood ran cold as she heard the metallic click of a pistol's hammer cocking directly behind her. Nora flung herself to one side in desperation just before Kellogg's slug slammed into the ground where she had been crouching. Her return volley only served to briefly light up the room as the lasers missed the mark and splattered against the far wall. She cursed to herself as she scrambled back to her feet and scurried away before he could fire again.

Nora stopped short a few feet away from the door they had entered this room through and took cover again. Nick was one row in front of her and a few feet off to one side, his yellow eyes sweeping the room as he looked for any sign of the invisible mercenary's location. As she peeked around the edge of the cubicle she was hiding behind, Nick stood up and started spraying bullets at chest level in a horizontal arc that moved from one wall towards the other. When his shots began passing through the middle of the room, a single shot rang out amidst the din and Nick cursed as it struck the metal fingers on his exposed right hand. For a brief instant she could see a small cloud of smoke appearing in the air before vanishing.

At the same moment a small metal object came bouncing off the wall behind her and clattered on the ground as it landed at Nora's feet. She stared down at the trash can shaped grenade frozen in surprise before something clicked in Nora's head as she grabbed it with one hand and hurled it back towards where the smoke had been. She could hear Kellogg's voice as it landed back on the ground "Oh shit..." before the grenade exploded in a dome of garish green light. She covered her eyes until the blinding light had vanished before hesitantly moving out of cover.

Nora slowly made her way towards where the explosion had been, half-expecting Kellogg to fire again any second. A pile of ash lying on the ground was lying there on the ground to greet her after she walked around the last corner. She lowered her pistol as she stared at the man's remains before eventually turning away.

By the time Nick had made his way over to Kellogg's remains, she had already begun trying to log into a computer nearby. All of the terminals in the base, broken or not, had been of prewar design except for this one. Nora didn't recognize the design and there wasn't any manufacturer's symbol but it was clearly much newer and more advanced then any computer she had ever seen before. "Nothing left of Kellogg but ash. Can't say I'm sorry he's dead, but we might have been able to get a lead if his brain had survived. That computer tell you anything?"

Nora shook her head as she felt her spirit beginning to sink "No, it's just a report he made. It says Shaun was delivered to the Institute but Kellogg already told us that and it says he was after some renegade... at least I got to avenge Nate so that's something." She picked her pistol up off the desk as she got back to her feet. "How's your hand? I saw you get hit."

The detective looked at the digits he still had left on his right hand, seemingly bemused. "It's nothing I can't fix though Nicky Three-Fingers has a nice ring to it. Let me know when you're ready to head back to Diamond City."

After they were back on the road, Nora stuck her pistol back into it's holster but left it unbuttoned. A full month of running around the Commonwealth had made her rather cautious when out in the wilds. Super mutants, synths, raiders, gunners, yao guai bears, deathclaws but the worst were those damn giant insects. She shuddered at the thought of a bloatfly spitting it's maggots at her—that had not been a good day.

"So if you don't mind me asking, what's the deal with you and Piper?" Nora lifted an eyebrow at Nick's question before shrugging dismissively. "I don't know what you're talking about." He snorted at that "All right, I won't pry if that's what you want. I do have another question then, why did you ask me to come to Fort Hagen with you? You had Piper go with you everywhere else, why the change?"

Nora gave the area around them a quick scan and reflexively brushed her fingers against her gun even though she didn't see anything. There was a long silence before she eventually replied "I wasn't sure how I was going to react when I found Kellogg. I might have panicked, had a meltdown, gone berserk... I didn't really know. I brought you along because I figured you'd handle it better if I had a bad reaction. And I didn't want to risk Piper seeing me going ballistic." Nick considered that for a moment "Piper woulda been fine, but it was your decision to make. What do you plan on doing when we get back to Diamond City now that the trail's gone cold?"

"The Institute will find out that Kellogg's dead sooner or later but if all the stories I've heard are true then I wouldn't be surprised if they already know. If I'm lucky then they might contact me but that's a long shot. I have some caps saved up from some of the weapons I sold and Piper said they're selling a house near the market so I was going to go buy it from Geneva." Nick looked surprised at that "You're not going to stay in Sanctuary Hills? That was where you lived before the Great War right?"

Nora stopped walking and her surprise was evident in her voice "I never told you that." Nick laughed, though not unkindly, at the look on her face. "I am a detective remember? You told me that you were frozen in Vault 111 and I know that Sanctuary Hills is the closest city so it's the most likely candidate. Why move to Diamond City?"

"It's... some of the buildings are still there, but it's not the same place anymore. All the people and the things that made it home for me are gone. Nothing's left there but memories of the old world and I'd rather not hang onto something that doesn't exist anymore. Diamond City is as good a place to start over as any that I've seen."

"Doesn't hurt that's the city where Piper lives does it?"

"What was that Nick? I think your vocal unit is malfunctioning. I grabbed a screwdriver while we were in the fort and I've been working on my mechanical skills if you want me to give it a shot."


	2. Home Plate

Nora glanced at the key that Geneva had given her before using it to unlock the red door. The door was reluctant to open after having been shut for so long but it gave way after one good shove. She fumbled around for a light switch in the dark before turning her pipboy's light on and looked about the room. There was a lightbulb hanging from the half landing directly in front of her along with some stairs and a workshop bench to her left.

She closed the door behind her before taking a few steps inside towards the hanging lightbulb. She reached out to turn it on before the dust she stirred up started making her sneeze repeatedly. Nora grumbled to herself when the fit passed " _Well I know the first thing I need to do in here after I finish taking a look around."_

The half-landing was occupied by a small cupboard and a bed that looked like it hadn't been used in years along with a first aid container near the bed. She opened it briefly to inspect the contents before shutting it again. Chances were that she would never need to use these, but it never hurt to have an emergency kit in her new home.

Nora turned away as she went back down the stairs and turned the corner towards what must have been the warehouse Geneva had mentioned. The wood floor came to an abrupt end and everything else was sitting on top of bare dirt. The dirt itself wasn't a horrible sight, but her shoulders sagged at sight of the sheer amount of junk in front of her. Stacks of tires, construction barriers, traffic cones, a broken toilet, one nuka cola machine, a filthy tub and at some point somebody had stashed a rusty shopping cart from some store that probably hadn't been open since the Great War in here.

There was another first aid container along with a few ammo boxes and a steamer trunk though so hopefully it wasn't a bunch of debris. She checked the ammo boxes first, just some bullets for guns she didn't use before moving to the trunk itself. Some more bullets, a few cells, a heavily modified laser pistol and shotgun. And there nine missiles along a plasma mine resting on the bottom. Nora froze at the sight of the explosives and she could feel goosebumps prickling on her arms. It wasn't as bad as finding some mini nukes but this many missiles would easily have taken out this part of the house and anything or anyone close by. Nora stood up before slowly backing away and heading for the door. There had to be someone in town who was good with explosives, maybe the arms vendor or one of the security guards.

"So you opened the trunk and it's just full of missiles?" Piper seemed amused at the situation and at Nora's not-quite-panicked reaction to it. The market around her house had been temporarily evacuated as Arturo disarmed and moved the explosives to his shop. For a nominal fee of course, nothing was free in the Commonwealth. "You could have just taken them to Art yourself you know." Nora shook her head as she folded her arms "And risk blowing someone up? I studied law in college. There wasn't a high demand for a high explosive defusing one oh one class in my field."

"Relax Blue, I'm just giving you a hard time. You did the right thing, it's just nice to see that something can fluster you." Nora watched Arturo exit her house with a box full of missiles in hand and head back towards his weapons shop. "That so? You should have seen me when I ran into bloodbugs or bloatflies for the first time. Insects were always a nuisance in the Old World, but nothing like they are now."

"Well I can't blame you for that, those things are disgusting as hell. Anyways have you eaten yet? I could get us some noodles from Takahashi if you want." Nora gave a soft smile in response "I'd like that. Give me ten minutes or so then come by my place."

Nora made her way back into her house as Piper headed towards the protectron that ran Power Noodles in the marketplace. She grabbed the patio table and dragged it out of the dirt area and onto the wood floor. There was only one chair in the house so she grabbed one of the smaller wood crates and set it on one end next to the table. Nora began to undo the clasp on her pipboy as she headed back towards the trunk she had found earlier. She slid the electronic device off her wrist and set it next the trunk before removing her backpack and setting it on the ground. She unzipped the top compartment to reveal a red dress and pair of black heels inside.

It was a bit tacky to wear this given the house's condition but it was the nicest outfit she had and Nora wanted to make a good impression on Piper at dinner. She started taking her combat armor off and dropped each piece in the trunk as she went. Nora closed the chest so she could sit down while unzipping her vault suit. She unlaced her boots before kicking them off and sliding the jumpsuit off one leg at a time. There was a knock at the door just as she was sliding her feet into the heels. "Just a minute!" Nora reached down and pulled the dress over her head before nervously trying to smooth some wrinkles out of it. She took a deep breath at the door then reached out to grab the handle and pull it open.

Piper had turned her head to look at a noise in the distance as she waited. When she looked back at the open door, her mouth opened slightly and she made a small squeaking sound. "Oh! Blue!... or should I start calling you Red now?" She lifted the bag she was holding in one hand "So I got some nuka colas too so we have something to drink. Can I come in?" Nora stepped to one side to let Piper in before shutting the door "Don't mind the mess, I haven't had a chance to actually clean anything up yet."

The reporter glanced about the room for a moment before her eyes fell on the patio table. "Don't worry about it Blue, I've seen plenty worse then this." She set the bag down on the table as Nora pulled the chair out for Piper to sit in. "Oh no way, I'm not making you sit on a box in that dress. It's way too nice for that." Piper didn't leave Nora any choice but to take the chair as she sat down on the wooden crate and started pulling the noodles and soda out of the tote bag she had gotten somewhere.

"Gotta say Blue, you... uhm that dress... is something else."Nora gave a small smile at Piper's stammered attempt of a compliment. "I'll just assume that means you're saying I look gorgeous so thank you. I was hoping you would like it." Piper squeaked again at that "Oh. Y- you put it on for me? I- th- oh..." Her face turned red as she grew more flustered and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "So you'reliving inDiamondCity now. What do you think?"

Nora grabbed one of the bowls of noodles and a fork before answering "It's a little surreal to be honest. I attended my fair share of Red Sox games at Fenway Park and now my house is built on the infield. First base is just a few feet away from where we're sitting and the pitcher's mound isn't that far off either. I'm half expecting to see the ghosts of people like Matt Murtagh or Dusty Wilder walking around in here."

Piper had followed Nora's lead and started eating the food that she had brought in "I can't imagine how strange and awful this must be for you. I don't know if I could handle it as well as you're doing, I'd probably be a wreck if I went through what you had. How do you keep it together Blue?"

Nora sighed inwardly as she felt the mood changing. Piper meant well with her question, but it still had a sobering effect on her. "I'm not as composed as you think, at least when it comes to Shaun I'm not. Nate is a different story, I'll try to explain, but it might not make sense."

She reached out to grab one of the nuka colas and twisted the bottle cap off as she began delving into her memories of the world that had been. "I met Nate when we were freshman in college. I was studying law and he was in the Army ROTC, that was an officer training program the US Army ran. I wouldn't call it love at first sight, but we were both interested in each other pretty quickly. It was on and off for a few months, the problem was that he was a soldier. The military had had a hand in a lot of bad things before the bombs fell. Food riots all over the country, relationships with Canada had been tense for years, they were occupying parts of Mexico and then there was the war with China."

To her credit, Piper recognized it wasn't the right time to start asking questions and prying like she was accustomed to do. Nora took a deep swig as she continued trying to explain what things had been like back then for her. "Some people idolized the military as the only thing protecting us while others saw them as tyrants and my friends were among the latter. I had to choose between him and the friends I had back then. It wasn't easy, but I chose Nate even though there was a very real chance he could die. Anchorage had been a war-zone for years and we had invaded China a few years before we got married."

One of Nora's hand tightened on the bottle of nuka cola and the other made a fist as she continued speaking in a low angry tone. "Seeing Nate die hurt, but I always had been prepared for that, as much I could anyways. But seeing my son taken? That's what truly pisses me off." Piper reached over as she put one of her gloved hands on top of Nora's fist. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up some bad memories, just know that I'm here for you."

Nora uncurled her fingers as she turned her hand and laced her fingers through Piper's. She had just begun to respond when a clanging sound came from above them. Nora half rose from her chair in confusion as the landing above them shook from the impact of something heavy landing on it. She took two steps towards the stairs when a gloved hand appeared over the edge as it dropped a metal cylinder towards them.

She could hear Piper yell 'Grenade' before the device exploded in a nearly silent flash of blue light. As the wave rushed past her, Nora could feel an abrupt of fatigue sweep through her. Her arms drooped to her sides and it had suddenly become such a burden to keep her eyes open as she collapsed to the ground.

A dark skinned figure dressed in a long black leather jacket and gloves descended the stairs towards them. Nora could hear a tiny voice in her head urging her to go grab her pistol and defend herself, but she couldn't muster the energy to stand up. The figure rolled her onto her stomach and cuffed her wrists behind her back before tying her ankles together. A minute later and Piper was similarly trussed up and lying next to her, but with closed eyes.

The last thing Nora heard before passing out was the man speaking to the empty air. "X six eighty eight - Ready to relay with captives." There were three bursts of light and afterwards the house was as empty as it had been the day before.


	3. The Locked Room

Nora stirred and groaned as she started to awaken. She opened her eyes for the briefest of moments before squeezing them shut to block out the painfully sharp brightness. Her temples were throbbing painfully while her mouth felt dried out and ashy. Nora started moving one arm to put a hand over her eyes before feeling metal digging into her skin. "Oh right, handcuffs."

"You waking up now Blue?" Piper's voice sounded tentative and more then just a bit scared. "I'm getting there, just give me a minute okay?" Nora made an effort to appear confident and assure Piper at the same time, but she had a bad feeling about their current situation. She went much slower this time as she opened her eyes again to try and let them acclimate a little bit at a time. Once fully open, she started looking around her to see where exactly they where and what condition they were in.

Piper was only sitting a few inches away and her jacket's creases looked as though she had been pressed against something or someone. Both of them had their ankles tied together with a corded rope and Nora could see the reporter's wrists were handcuffed in the exact same way as her own. The room itself was the biggest shock and surprise to her however.

She had traveled throughout the Commonwealth since leaving the Vault she had been frozen in and everything had been filthy. Even in places like Diamond City or Goodneighbor, the beacons of what passed for civilization these days, had been filled with clutter and debris. It was like everyone had stopped bothering to clean up after themselves after the bombs had gone off. And those areas looked pristine in comparison to all of the abandoned ruins and towns she had passed through.

But this room... it was the first place that resembled anything like the Old World. The carpet wasn't packed with dirt, the glass was clear and the walls had unstained blue paint on them. After everything she had seen, it felt like walking into some kind of clean-room. In a single word, this place was... sterile.

Piper and Nora were stuck in some kind of smaller enclosure in the room itself. There was a kind of sliding metal door off to their right attached to a single large glass pane that curved into the wall on her left. She could see some desks and a few uniquely shaped computer terminals on the other side, but the room itself was empty except for the two of them. Nora turned her attention away from the room outside as she looked at the scared woman sitting next to her "Are you all right Piper?"

"My head is pounding and I could use a drink but I'm not hurt... Where the hell are we?" Nora hesitated as she considered pretending she didn't know or outright lying, but Piper had a knack for sniffing out the truth. She didn't want to cause her to panic, but telling Piper the truth was the only real choice. "Look at those terminals out there, do you recognize them?" Piper shook her head no before Nora continued "I saw one of those a few days ago in Fort Hagen. Kellogg was using it to communicate with the Institute, these are their computers. If I had to guess, that's where we are."

Nora could see Piper beginning to tremble as she looked around the room, a new-found horror beginning to settle in. Nora couldn't pretend that she wasn't afraid, but she hadn't grown up living with tales of the Institute like Piper had. The very words 'The Institute' were only spoken with fear and at your own peril. A mysterious entity lurking in the shadows of everyone who lived in the Commonwealth. Living your life afraid of waking up and finding your family had been replaced by machines or having people you knew just up and vanish in the night to never be seen again. Whatever goals they had, whatever plans they were executing were hidden beneath an esoteric veil unpierced even by the most ardent of it's enemies. And the Railroad was almost as much of an unknown as the Institute they fought against.

And now Piper had awoken to find herself captured and bound in the belly of the Commonwealth's monster-in-the-closet. Her face began to quiver and tears began as fear and dismay began to overwhelm her. Nora swung her legs to the left and twisted at the waist so she could reach out and grab Piper's hands. "Hey, hey, hey. Stay with me here. I know you're scared and I understand why, but we can't lose our heads. If we're going to get out of this, then we need to stay calm."

Piper's eyes latched onto Nora's face as she spoke, her expression that of someone who had fallen into the sea and was desperately scrabbling for something, anything to latch onto. "Try... try to think of this like you're researching another story. The Institute is a giant mystery right? Well now you have a chance that no one else has had before. Imagine all the secrets you can dig up here and what kind of a story it'll make when we get out. But if you fall apart then you'll miss out on the biggest scoop the Commonwealth has ever seen."

She sniffled once and tried, and partially succeeded, in wiping her cheeks on her shoulders as Nora's attempt to soothe her sank in. Piper still looked afraid and her fingers hadn't let go, but the tears had stopped flowing. "Okay Blue... the biggest scoop... I won't miss out on that." Nora gave an encouraging smile before she turned her head as she examined the room they were in once more. There was a distinct lack of anything they could possibly use in their compartment. The wall behind them was completely smooth and featureless. There wasn't so much as even a power outlet in sight. She turned her attention to the door off to their right. "You woke up before I did. Did you try the door or is it locked?" Piper shook her head despondently "I looked at it earlier while you were still asleep. I'm not even sure how it's supposed to open, there's no handle and I don't see any buttons or anything. I think we're stuck Blue."

Nora cursed under her breath before thumping her head against the wall behind her in frustration. "Looks like our only option is waiting. Sooner or later someone will have to check on us. Let's pretend we're still asleep until then. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll open the door." Piper looked askance at Nora, her overwhelming skepticism and disdain of the idea plain to see. Nora hunched her shoulders underneath that glare "If you got a better idea, I'm all ears." Piper shook her head in bemusement but slumped to her side as she closed her eyes. Nora glanced towards door on the other side of the barrier to reassure herself that the room was still empty before following suit.

Without a clock in the room or her pipboy Nora could only guess at how much time had passed, but it felt like an hour at the very least. There was a soft hissing sound as the door leading to the outside opened and someone walked inside. She kept her eyes shut and hoped that their ruse would pay off as the quiet footsteps drew closer. There was a moment of silence before a man's voice shattered the faint hope she had in her plan. "I applaud you for the attempt, but you would have realized pretending to be asleep would be futile if you had noticed the camera there."

Nora winced inwardly at the man's words as she gave up the pretense and pushed herself upright with one elbow. As she opened her eyes, she could see him pointing at a small rectangular box on the wall directly across from her. ' _Damn it he's right. I_ _ **should**_ _have seen that._ ' She turned her attention back to the man as he grabbed a chair from the desk and positioned it next to the glass partition in front of them. He was an older man, fifty – perhaps sixty years old. He wore a white lab coat over a green sweater and a pair of tan pants. His skin was a pale white and for a split second those brown eyes painfully reminded her of the husband she had lost. The man's most striking feature however was his blue-gray beard and hair. "Who are you?"

He finished seating himself before deigning to respond. "An excellent question and not one with a simple answer. I am the director of the Institute and the people who live and work here call me Father. It's more of a nickname but it will suffice for now Nora." He glanced at Piper as she was sitting up. "And this must be Miss Wright or shall I call you Piper?" She scowled at him as he waited for an answer. "Very well. Miss Wright it is. And you've no doubt realized that I already know who you are so tell me, what is your next question?"

Nora hesitated as she considered how best to respond. The man's voice and courtesy were remarkably pleasant and even somewhat formal. It was the kind of demeanor and tone that she would expect at a dinner party amongst strangers, not a kidnapper speaking to those he had abducted from their home. "Where are we?" Father shook his head as he tsked, not unkindly, at her. "You've already figured that out. We're in the Institute, but allow to elaborate a bit more if that will satisfy you. You're located in one of the private labs used by the BioSciences division. BioSciences focuses on genetic and bio-engineering as well as medicine and pharmaceuticals."

"Why did you bring us here?"

Father leaned back in the chair as he considered her, an inscrutable look on his face. "All in due time, but I have a question of my own. There is a concept known as the Five W's. I would expect Miss Wright to be familiar with them in practice at the very least since she is a journalist Who. What. Where. When and Why. As it happens, the Five W's are also applicable to the scientific fields as well. We have more in common then you realize Miss Wright since scientists, like you, seek the truth wherever it may be found. And before I ramble any further, let me get to my question. You've asked me three of the Five W's so far Nora. And perhaps this is the vain hope of an old man, but are you a scientist? Or perhaps I should ask if that's what you were before the Great War."

She stared at him, mouth slightly open as her confusion continued to mount at the oddity of the situation. Bound hand and foot, locked in a room somewhere in the bowels of the Institute and the Institute's director himself was asking if she was a scientist? Eventually the neurons in her brain began to fire once more and she shook herself out of the abrupt stupor that had befallen her. "No... I'm not a scientist. I graduated college with a law degree but I was still studying to sit for the bar exam when the bombs fell." Nora's face hardened and she locked eyes with the man sitting in the chair as her temper surged up within her "But that's all in the past. Now I'm just a woman searching for her son. And I happen to know who took him."

Father returned Nora's glare with an even gaze, his expression remaining unperturbed by her sudden outburst. He steepled his hands and glanced at the ceiling for a moment before looking back down at her. "So, Kellogg told you that he worked for us before he died did he? He wasn't lying you know. The Institute has employed him for a very long time and he was quite a useful tool, albeit an unpleasant one. I can't say a part of me isn't glad that he's gone but that's neither here nor there. And yes, the Institute took your son. For what it's worth, it was the act of one of my predecessor's but I happen to agree with their decision."

"Why?" It was only a single word, but the sheer weight of all her emotions it contained was enough to make the mildly pleasant expression on Father's face crack, if only for a moment. "You've learned what synths are during your time on the surface. The Institute's goal was to create the most human-like robot that we could. And what's a better place to start than with the human body itself? Human DNA to be more precise. And therein is the crux of the matter. We needed DNA that was... undamaged. A pure DNA if you will. All of the people living on the surface, whether it was in the Commonwealth or the Capital Wasteland or anywhere else – they had been affected by all the leftover radiation from the Great War. After two centuries, there were too many mutations, too much damage and contamination for us to use as a template. Even those living in the Institute have been affected and were unusable. Eventually the Institute found what they were looking for in Vault one eleven. An infant – buried deep below the surface and frozen in time. Your son was everything we needed to create the perfect machine. And they succeeded Nora."

"You stole my son. You murdered my husband. All so you can make better looking robots? What the hell is wrong with you?" Nora felt blind rage seething through as she forced herself up onto her feet and moved towards the glass wall surrounding them. "I swear to whatever God is out there I'll kill you if I get the chance."

If the threat had any impact on Father, it didn't show on his face "Is that so? Well, I can't blame you for hating the Institute but I believe there's something that may yet make you reconsider. You've been searching through the Commonwealth for the son who was taken from you and now you've found him." He stood up from his chair and placed his hands behind his back as he looked her square in the eyes. "The people here call me Father as a sign of respect and affectation but the name I was given at birth is Shaun. **I** am your son."

Nora stared at him in shock at his proclamation before she began to laugh. Slowly at first, but it only took a few seconds before her laughter was loud and raucous. "How stupid do you think I am? You're old enough to be **my** father and you're claiming to be my son?"

"Is it so hard to imagine? You were frozen in the cryo pod and had no concept of the passage of time. You were first woken when Kellogg took me and killed Nate until you were later woken at my order and found that two hundred years had passed in the outside world. Is it so hard to imagine that sixty years passed between those two times?"

After everything she had seen in the Commonwealth since waking up, Nora had thought there was nothing that could have truly shocked her anymore. Until now. Her thoughts began racing at a thousand miles an hour as she sifted through everything she had learned up and see up until this point. Silence had settled over the room as she tried to process all of it. Ultimately though, it all came down to this moment. This man was claiming to be her son and the question was whether or not she believed him.

Nora's gaze returned to those brown eyes she had seen earlier. Father's eyes... Nate's eyes... Shaun's eyes. Yes, she believed him. Her voice was noticeably shaking as she forced out another question. "You're Shaun...my baby...but you've been calling me Nora...and you called your father Nate. Why are you using our names?"

For the first time since he had walked in, Shaun actually looked somewhat uncomfortable. "I can understand your feelings on this matter and I hope you can understand mine. You and Nate are my biological parents but I was taken as an infant and raised in the Institute. You may have given birth to me, but I have no memories of either of you. It may seem callous but from my perspective you're a stranger that I've never met until today."

He took a deep breath and the discomfort disappeared and that calm demeanor returned. "I think I've satisfied enough of my curiosity however. Let's move on to why I've had you brought here. The BioSciences division has been working on some projects with a great deal of potential but they've hit some major stumbling blocks. They have some ideas about how to proceed, but we've found ourselves in a somewhat familiar position. I was taken because the Institute needed uncontaminated DNA and while I remain a viable source, this project needs genetic material that I cannot provide. You, on the other hand, are exactly what they're looking for – an adult woman uncontaminated by the surface above. I will admit that... we brought you here in a most unusual way, but the research we are doing could create the breakthrough we've been working towards for so long and your cooperation would be greatly appreciated by the Institute."

Nora stared at him in disbelief as she felt grief mixing with her anger. Everything she had gone through, all the things she had suffered since leaving the Vault. The endless walking, the calluses and blisters on her feet, the sun burning her skin, hiding in ruins from radiation storms. The trail of bodies she had left behind her as she scoured the Commonwealth. Raiders, gunners, gangsters, ferals, synths, super mutants and all the animals twisted by radiation roaming the land. Her home along with her entire world had been taken by the bombs and then she had been forced to watch, powerless to stop it, as her husband was murdered and her son taken. And now that she had finally found him, he outright called her as a stranger. This was what her son had turned into? No. This wasn't Shaun. She had lost her son the same day that her husband had died. "You kidnapped us because you need guinea pigs? Go fuck yourself."

He nodded slowly, looking disappointed but not entirely surprised. He turned away and headed towards the door, pressing his hand against a part of the wall next to it. Both halves of the door slid into the walls as it opened. "X-Six Eighty-Eight, X-Four Eighteen, your services are required." Father disappeared through the door as two figures entered.

The first was the person she had seen the night before in her newly bought home. The second wasn't familiar, but he wore an identical black leather jacket and was holding a small cylinder of compressed gas. There was a valve at the top next to a long hose that terminated in a clear rounded plastic triangle of sorts. The door shut behind them as they approached the room Nora and Piper were in. X-Six pressed at the wall next to their small prison cell to open the doors.

Nora aimed her kick at X-Six's knee but he moved faster then she would have thought possible for a human as he dodged to one side then darted towards Piper. The other woman was in the middle of rising to her feet when he grabbed her shoulders and pinned her face down to the floor. Nora stomped her heel into his rib cage as hard as she could but X-Six didn't react in the slightest to her attack.

She felt a hand grip her shoulder from behind and spin her around to face the other man in the room. X-Four grabbed the back of her head to hold it fixed in position. His other hand twisted the valve on the tank he was holding before setting it down and pressing the plastic mask over her nose and mouth. Nora tried to pull away but the hand holding her was completely unyielding and didn't budge so much as a centimeter. She slammed a knee into his groin but X-Four didn't so much as blink as the gas took effect and everything went black.


	4. The Doctor(Smut)

Authors Notes: Few things to go over here. First is I'd like to give a shoutout to Straumoy for the feedback he provided on AO3. The second is that due to real life, updates will temporarily be on hold for a bit. The last two are comments I want to make about this particular chapter. There's a sort of non-violent torture scene in this chapter so readers be warned. And lastly, to any female readers, the main scene in this chapter is purposefully exaggerated and shouldn't be construed as factual.

So with that said, hopefully you'll still enjoy reading this.

* * *

Nora was staring out over the skyline of Concord from her position atop the Museum of Freedom. The sun was shining brightly overhead and a few patches of white drifted through the sky. She could see farmlands in the distance and beyond them a range of forested hills. It would have been an idyllic day were it not for the people shooting at her.

Sturges, the handyman hiding within the museum, had been right. The suit of power armor up here had rusted over the centuries it had lain dormant but was still functional. Nora raised one armored hand in front of her helmet and curled her fingers into a fist before grinning. The suit was humming all about her as she took the first steps that it had seen in centuries. It almost felt like the armor was it's own creature and was excited to serve it's purpose once again after being dormant for so long. Adrenaline began coursing through her veins as she stepped into the vertibird, her gaze on the mounted minigun on the far side. One solid yank ripped the minigun out of the turret it had been affixed to. Nora checked the drum to make sure it had ammo before heading back out onto the roof.

The raiders were quick to react when she approached the roof's edge and their rifles began popping as they opened fire. She had been a tiny bit afraid it wouldn't protect her but the raider's shots were harmlessly pinging off the outer shell. Whether it was the adrenaline or a reckless feeling of superiority from the power armor, she couldn't say, but Nora sprinted the last few steps as she leapt off the building. The concrete where she landed fractured under the suit's weight and cracks split off several feet in every direction as she landed on the street. And then her minigun's barrels began to spin and spit out death as she opened fire on the raiders.

As she advanced down the street, Nora felt like a goddess unleashing her wrath. These raiders were nothing, their weapons were nothing. They might have been an affliction that this new world had to deal with, but they were helpless against the might and technology of the world she had come from.

Her gun stopped spinning as the last of the raiders fell and then there was a roar unlike anything she had ever heard before.

The metal plate leading to the sewer bent in the middle outwards as something slammed into it from below. A few seconds later and the plate ripped free from it's hinges and flew up into the air as something emerged. It was massive, larger than any lizard that had existed since the dinosaurs had gone extinct. It's scales were a greenish-black, the head sported a pair of curved horns and it's back was covered in spikes. Nora raised her minigun to begin firing but the reptile was terribly swift for a creature of its size as it bounded towards here on all four limbs.

It seized her by the shoulders and she felt it effortlessly lifting her off the ground as if she weighed no more than a small child. Nora felt the impact shake every bone in her body when she was slammed back down onto the street. The deathclaw sprang upon her, the sheer weight of the monstrous reptile pinning her to the ground beneath it. Horrible piercing squeals filled the air as it's vicious claws left thin gouges in their wake upon the armor protecting her flesh and blood. It opened it's razor filled maw to roar but a woman's voice came out "Blue!"

She started awake as Piper had a hand on each shoulder and was gently shaking her. "Wake up Blue, it's just a dream." Nora looked around the room in confusion. This wasn't Concord... she wasn't wearing power armor and the deathclaw wasn't anywhere in sight. Piper's voice was soft, but there was a small trace of frustration in it as she wiped a bit of sweat off Nora's forehead with her jacket sleeve "It was the deathclaw dream again wasn't it? It's _dead_ Blue, you killed it, it can't hurt you."

It was only then that she realized Piper's hands were free of their handcuffs and so were hers for that matter. The ropes tied around their ankles had vanished as well. Nora was about to reply when the door leading to the outside opened and a man wearing a green lab coat entered. He was a noticeably shorter than Nora and fairly skinny. His ill cared-for hair was a sort of dirty brown and his smaller than normal eyes had a light bluish hue. Nora and Piper exchanged a glance as he approached the glass barrier, his attention fixed on the clipboard in his hands.

He finally looked up from the notes he was reading as his attention shifted to Nora. His voice was a flat monotone and lacking any real inflection. Nora felt herself growing to understand what an insect trapped in a jar to be stared at must have felt like as he spoke. "Female, thirty years old. First name Nora, last name unknown. One son, no other living family. Educated in law so no physical danger from profession is being assumed. Two months in the Commonwealth since being released from cryo pod. Some exposure to radiation is likely and a high probability of injury since then is estimated."

His gaze turned to Piper as he lifted the top piece of paper off the clipboard to look at the next page. "Female, age unknown – best estimate is early to late twenties. First name Piper, last name Wright. One sister in Diamond City, existence of other family members unknown. Ran the newspaper Publick Occurrences in Diamond City, has a history of negative reactions to her articles so some injuries and threats to life have been noted as occurring. Born and raised in the Commonwealth so radiation damage is expected and there is a an almost guaranteed probability of inherited mutations."

Piper snorted derisively, her voice dripping with sarcasm "That's quite the profile you got on us. So who are you?"

He shrugged her mockery off as he lowered the clipboard "My name is Nolan MacBridge and I am one of the scientists in Bioscience. I could go into more detail, but none of that is relevant to either of you. You will remain here Miss Wright while Nora comes with me. There is much to do."

Nora smirked at the man's order "And why would I do that? I'd rather bash your head in than help you."  
Nolan lifted an eyebrow as he pulled some sort of rectangular device out of his coat pocket. "Father did say you would not be cooperative but there is always the chance you will change your mind. Until then." They could hear the click of him pressing buttons before Nolan twisted a dial.

Her jaw abruptly clamped shut of its own accord and then the pain started. It came from everywhere all at once in a giant flood. Nora felt herself burning away as if she was standing in the path of a flamethrower. Every square inch of her skin, every piece of muscle fiber, all her nerve endings and chunks of fatty tissue was ablaze. She tried to scream from the agony, but her jaw wouldn't open no matter how badly she wanted it to. And then it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

Nora dropped to her hands and knees as she began gasping for air while her heart hammered at the inside of her chest. Piper looked lost and confused at what had just happened but she knelt at Nora's side and put a hand on her back nonetheless. Nolan on the other hand looked disinterested, bored even, at her reaction. She forced the words out in-between gasps for air "What did... you do... to me?"

Nolan ruffled through the sheets on his clipboard before he pulled out a black and white x-ray picture. He turned it around and pressed it to the glass for them to look at. It showed a person's skull and part of their spinal cord in a classic side profile shot. She had seen x-ray's before but this one had something new to it, a metal looking object wrapped around the spinal cord near the base of the skull "After the two of you were put to sleep yesterday, we surgically attached this device to your spinal cords. It taps directly into your nervous system and with it we can transmit signals of our choosing."

He slid the x-ray back onto the clipboard as he continued speaking with that same utter lack of emotion

"The Institute prefers that you cooperate with me of your own accord but if necessary we will take whatever steps are needed. And as a safeguard all of our activities are being monitored and recorded. These observers also have a copy of the controller in their possession therefore neutralizing me will accomplish nothing. So once again, Miss Wright will stay here while Nora comes with me."

Nora tried to look for something, anything she could use to her advantage here but the Institute had left nothing to chance. They might have been able to pull something off now that their hands were free but the Institute had deftly avoided that possibility. She had no weapons, no armor and her only friend here was as helpless against this device as she was. There was only one choice available to her. Nora reached out to squeeze Piper's hand, seeking whatever small comfort she could, before Nolan took her out of their cell and into the next room.

This part of the lab was about four times than size of the room containing their cell but other than that they had little in common. The floor was made out of a generic looking white tile and she could see a few alcoves on one side of the room. The nearest held some kind of table and she could barely glimpse some kind of chair in the alcove next to it. She could see several of the cameras Father had pointed out to her mounted on the walls and a couple fixed to the ceiling. Their were were two other doors she could see as well. The one on the far side of the room had their abductor, X-Six, standing guard with laser rifle in hand. She glanced at the other, but saw nothing about it worth noting.

Nolan first led her to the table that she had spotted. It was made of steel, but the waist high table had cushions buttoned to the top of it and a disposable sheet covering those. Beneath the table top were several drawers. He gestured to the table as he pulled one of the drawers open "Be seated."

Nora hesitantly pushed herself up and onto the table, feeling uneasy about the man's intentions "What are you going to do to me?"

For the first time since she had seen him, the doctor's face showed a flicker of emotion as his lips flattened tightened in annoyance. "The directorate has ordered that I answer any questions you ask about the procedures you and Miss Wright undergo. This is a physical examination. It would have been best to do this after you left the cryo pod but Father rejected my request at that time."

Nora felt something resembling hope flicker inside her. It wasn't much, but any information that she could pry loose had a chance of being useful. And at the very least, she would know what was happening to her "All right then. I want you to always tell me what you're going to do beforehand. Starting now."

His disapproval at having to explain himself deepened into a scowl before vanishing as he regained control and became placid once more. "Very well. Vault-Tec had the people of Sanctuary Hills frozen as an experiment to study the long-term effects of cryogenic suspension on the human body. There was an examination on Father when he was brought to the Institute but he was an infant at the time. As an adult, you may have been affected differently."

MacBridge turned away as he went to grab a cart and wheel it back over to the table. Nora watched in silence as he began pulling out instruments from the drawer and placed them on the top of the cart. Two hundred years may have passed but the tools he was selecting looked much the same as the ones she remembered from doctor's visits in the past. Thermometer, blood pressure cuff, a flexible flashlight, stethoscope, latex gloves and a few more scopes that she could never remember the names of.

He pulled on the gloves as he began examining her. Checking her temperature, heart rate and blood pressure Listening to her breathing, shining lights in the eyes, peering into her mouth, ears and even looking up her nasal passages. Nolan badgered her with questions about anything that might have happened to her as he worked. "Any cuts? Bruises? Bites? Have you been exposed to radiation? Do you have any mystery pains or aches?"

She shook her head as he set one of the scopes back onto the cart. "I've gotten my fair share of bruises and I ran into radiation occasionally out there but I always use RadAways to deal with it."

MacBridge picked up a small sealed package and opened it to pull out a small syringe "I will need to take a blood sample for testing then." She winced as he drew blood from the crook of her elbow then applied a small bandage over it after he was done. He tossed the needle into a nearby box with a prominently displayed warning label on it before picking up another syringe, this one already filled with some kind of liquid.

Nora frowned at the sight of him uncapping the syringe and checking the needle, feeling apprehensive all of a sudden "What is that?"

"It is a drug that will increases the number of eggs you grow during your next cycle. Since you are uncontaminated by radiation like everyone else is, the eggs you produce should be similarly unaffected. The probability of success is unknown, but any genetic material you produce could help us determine what mutations humanity has undergone since the Great War. You could say that we are using you to establish a baseline for comparison."

Nora stared at him, unable to believe what she was hearing. Father had said she had been brought here to help with their so-called 'research' but kidnapping her and Piper from her home? Surgically installing devices to control them. It was all just to get some eggs? They didn't even bother to try and ask her first! Nora was jolted out of her internal reverie by Nolan sticking the needle into her thigh and pressing down on the plunger. She yelped then glared daggers at him, more than a little displeased as he applied a bandage to her leg "A little warning next time?"

He ignored her comment as he threw the second used syringe away. Nolan tugged at the cuff on one of his gloves as he turned back towards her. "Take off your clothes." Nora visibly recoiled, taken aback both by the order and how casually it had been given. "W-what?"

"This physical is not yet complete. I have to finish examining you and your clothes are in the way. Take them off." Nora felt a wave of nausea emanating from her stomach at the idea. Sit still while he inspected her eyes and ears? Fine. Letting him draw some blood was a bit shady but not the end of the world. But stripping naked for this exam, especially with that guard at the door and cameras recording all of this? She was about to refuse when she saw one of his hands slip into the pocket that held the controller he had used on her earlier.

Nora extended her palms towards him pleading "Wait! You don't need to use that, I'll do it." She pushed herself off of the table and reached down to grab the hem of her dress. Her face began reddening as she pulled it up and over her head before discarding it one side. Nolan watched impassively as she reached behind her back to unclasp her bra, revealing her breasts to his gaze. Nora slipped out of her high heels before crouching as she slid her panties off of her legs. She reflexively put one arm over her breasts and tried to cover her crotch with the other hand as his gaze critically swept up and down her now exposed body.

The doctor pointed towards the chair that she had spotted earlier "Take a seat and we will begin." Nora had first seen it when she had entered the room but hadn't paid it any attention. It only took a second to realize what it was for now that she was actually looking at it. The chair's padded back was reclined at a somewhat low angle while the seat itself was perfectly flat. In addition there were a pair of stirrups shaped like an upside down 'V' and two foot rests that were connected to the chair by two adjustable steel beams.

Nora felt herself beginning to tremble at what she knew was coming next but there was no way to avoid it and it was still preferable to that device being turned on again. The chair being comfortable was the only solace she could find as she seated herself before spreading her legs apart as she pressed her feet against the footrests. She looked up at the ceiling above her only to see a camera in perfect position to record everything that happened in this chair.

Nolan had rolled the cart he had been using to hold his tools over to the chair as she was sitting down, but she couldn't see what was on it from this angle. He pushed the stirrups outwards a bit more to further exposing her groin before locking them into place. She shivered as his examination resumed , starting with her abdomen. His hands moved slowly as he pressed against her belly to feel for any deformities or lumps in her organs. Despite her disgust at being felt up like a flank of meat, she couldn't help but giggle as his fingers pushed into her sides and felt along her rib cage, one bone at a time.

After that, his attention turned her bosom as his checkup inexorably moved upwards. She had a moment's respite as he began asking questions much like he had earlier. "Any noticeable discharge? Soreness? Pain? Have you examined your breasts since being revived?" Nora shook her head 'no' to all of them, not wanting to speak to this creature anymore. Nolan simply nodded in response before gripping her breasts, one in each hand. She felt anger simmering inside her at how casually he had done it, but her rage was impotent against the pain she would experience if she reacted how she very much wanted to.

Nora had never considered her chest to be on the larger side, but Nolan's palms were overflowing as he began pressing inward while moving his fingers in circles to feel for any lumps. And despite of her anger and repugnance at how she was being treated she couldn't help but murmur ever so slightly as his pressure increased. Her bosom had always been sensitive to being touched and those fingertips were making sure every square inch had been checked. Nora felt his fingers cease their search and begin to pull away but he provoked an audible gasp from her as he studiously tweaked both nipples with his thumbs before withdrawing entirely.

MacBridge started pulling the gloves he was wearing off and tossed them into a bag attached to the side of the cart. He wheeled a chair over to sit in front of her and pulled on another pair before asking a question that she had never expected. "Have you been sexually active at all since leaving the cryo pod?"

Nora glared at him, her face contorting at the intrusive question. "That's none of your god damn business"

"Yes or no?" Silence fell as he waited for a response from her. Eventually he began reaching into his pocket once more. "No, I haven't slept with anyone." The hand stopped "What about masturbation?"

She shook her head "No."

He sat down in the chair before extending his gloved left hand to her groin. Nora bit her lip, drawing a small bead of blood, as she desperately tried to avoid making any further sounds of arousal as Nolan's fingers deftly spread her labia apart. His eyes moved slightly, both from side to side and up and down as he inspected for any visible abnormalities. "Cough once."

After she followed his order, he placed one hand on her abdomen then inserted the index and middle finger on his other hand into her vagina. She gritted her teeth as his fingers almost leisurely worked their way around inside of her. Nora took a shuddering breath as she found herself reacting to the way it felt to have those fingers penetrate her. It was purely a physical response but it still felt just a little bit pleasurable to be touched in something resembling a sexual manner by anyone, herself included. Her time traveling the Commonwealth, the long months carrying Shaun and recovering from his delivery. She sighed in relief and just a little disappointed when he pulled out of her. "So are you done yet?" she asked.

The doctor shook his head wordlessly as he began smearing some kind of jelly one of his fingers and promptly slid it, albeit slowly, into her anal sphincter. Despite the lack of warning, Nora couldn't help but moan wantonly as her muscles involuntarily clenched tightly around his finger. Her cheeks burned scarlet in embarrassment as the doctor glanced up at her face before returning to her pelvic region. He was stuck in place and unable to move until he pushed harder to break free from the grip her body had taken. She moaned again, even louder than before, as his finger pressed inwards, all the way to his knuckle, and began to work about as it felt for any sort of abnormality

And then, after what felt like forever to her, the finger was gone and he was removing the latex gloves once again. Nora felt her tension beginning to disappear as he threw the second pair into the same bag as the first pair. She turned her head to the side as she took a few deep breathes and wiped the blood off her lips with the back of her hand. "It seems like you are perfectly healthy but there will be some tests done on the blood sample you provided however so I cannot be entirely certain until then."

He stood up and gestured towards the room where Piper had been left. "You may dress yourself before you return to your room. After Miss Wright's examination is complete food will be brought for the two of you."

Nora slowly pulled her clothes back on. It wasn't much, but taking her time in dressing would at least delay Piper's sharing the experience she had just been through. She knew it was pointless, in the back of her mind at least, as this could only be the beginning.


	5. The Bedroom(Smut)

Nora was trying to not look at it, but her gaze inevitably made it's way back to the door leading to the room where Piper had been taken time and time again. They had exchanged a worried glance with each other before the door had shut behind Piper and their so-called doctor. She felt another pang of sympathy at what the reporter was going through at that very moment. The mental image of a nude Piper sitting on that chair, her orifices being examined, forced itself on her once again.

She shook her head to clear it of the picture that her imagination kept conjuring up. Focusing on Piper would only make the waiting worse. It was better for her to focus on something, anything other thanthat. Nora closed her eyes and took deep breaths as she counted to ten and returned to what she had been thinking about. The door opened and Piper entered, a downcast expression on her face and her hat held limply in one hand. The doctor Nolan MacBridge walked her to the cell Nora was sitting in before locking Piper in and leaving without a word. Nora rose to her feet as she put her arms around Piper's shoulders, squeezing her tightly. She looked up from the floor as Nora hugged her "Oh... hey Blue." Her voice was taciturn and her shoulders were slumped as she made no effort to return the embrace.

Nora took a step backwards but kept her hands on Piper's shoulders as she looked her up and down "Are you okay Piper? Did he hurt you?" Piper slowly shook her head as she sank to the floor and stared at the wall opposite of them. "Not physically... but he kept using that device... and the places he touched me."

Nora lowered herself to sit on the carpet beside her "I know what you mean. He did the same things to me too. Whatever you're feeling right now, whatever happens, you're not alone." She reached down and grabbed Piper's hand "I'm right here. If you want to talk, then I'll listen. If you need a shoulder, you can use mine. We're in this together okay?" Piper looked at Nora as she spoke before moving to sit in her lap as she curled up into a small ball and rested her head against a shoulder. Nora wrapped her arms around Piper, feeling the younger woman's need for comfort as they huddled together.

The question she had been thinking about came back to her. It wasn't likely that Piper knew, but talking about it might help to distract her at the very least. "Does the word relay mean anything to you Piper? The night we were taken, I heard X-Six say 'Ready to relay' before passing out. I don't know it means, but I thought you might."

Piper shook her head before replying into Nora's neck, her voice subdued "I've never heard anything like that in connection to the Institute. Why?"

Nora shifted slightly as she glanced at the camera that was silently monitoring them. Their conversation was being recorded but she had a feeling that whispering wouldn't help her any "I've been thinking about the night we were kidnapped and something about it doesn't make sense to me. My house is in the middle of Diamond City. The marketplace is literally just outside my front door and it was still busy when X-Six showed up. How did he get out with both of us? Someone should have seen him. Even if he was using a stealth boy it would have run out before he could get out of the city."

Piper shrugged in dismissal, the question not interesting her "Does it really matter Blue? He got us here and now we're stuck." Nora felt her worry deepening Piper's lack of interest in the riddle. Normally the idea of trying to figure out a puzzle would have piqued her curiosity. Her experience with Nolan must have been worse than she realized. Nora felt her eyes beginning to grow heavy and she yawned as the abrupt desire for rest carried her into a dreamless sleep.

A sharp rap on the glass startled both of them awake. Nora glanced up to see who was responsible for the sound. Nolan was standing off to one side holding the controller to their implants in his hands. There were another man and a woman that she hadn't seen before as well holding cafeteria trays. She turned her attention away from the trays to the people holding them. Both were unusually attractive at first glance much to her surprise. The man had curly light brown hair, blue eyes, tanned skin and had a lean muscularity that wouldn't have been out of place on a surfboard in California. The woman had fiery red hair, full lips, green eyes and her hourglass figure made even the mundane task of carrying food seem somehow sensual. Both were wearing identical white shirts and pants though the woman's was notably tighter around her upper body.

Nolan glanced at the two of them as he saw the direction of her gaze. He gestured towards the man with the controller "This is L-Three Thirty-Nine though I prefer to not use their manufacturing numbers so I call him Lee. The other is R-Four Forty-Six or Ruby."

The doctor ushered the synths on with a wave of his hand before looking at Nora "The utensils are made of metal and the water bottle is glass. If you get any ideas about using them to escape then I press the button and both of you know what that will do." Ruby opened the door and Lee followed her inside as the two of them handed the trays they had been holding to Nora and Piper. Afterwards the synths moved away but remained close to the door of their cell.

Nora took a look at what they had been given and her forehead furrowed in confusion. Nothing on the tray resembled anything that typically came to mind when she thought about food. There were several different colors in each of the sections but it looked more like soft serve ice cream poured out of a machine than anything else. There was a surprising amount of it however, more then she would have expected though Nora had little idea how much food this actually was.

Nolan must have seen the look on Nora's face as she and Piper exchanged a glance. "It may not resemble what you are accustomed to but our food will suffice for all your nutritional and caloric requirements." The doctor seated himself on the chair that Father had been using during his conversation with Nora and began watching the two prisoners, his gaze zeroing in on every movement they made, no matter how small.

Nora picked up the spoon and scooped up a piece of the whitish food. She sniffed at it hesitantly but there was no noticeable scent to be found. Nora was about to pass on eating it when her stomach loudly rumbled in protest at the notion. She sighed inwardly then stuck the piece in her mouth and began chewing. She glanced over at Piper who was watching her and shrugged at her unspoken question "Tastes like chicken but it feels like eating tofu."

Piper raised an eyebrow at that as Nora started digging into the rest of her meal "Tofu? What's tofu?" Nora knew she was being rude by not answering, but the first bite of food had made her realize that she was famished. Piper eventually stopped waiting for a response and reluctantly started eating as well. The tofu like substances may not have resembled the animals or plants that their taste was based on, but Nora couldn't tell the difference between what she was eating and the actual thing. MacBridge stood from his chair as the two of them were nearly done eating. "You can leave those here. Your blood tests have come back negative so it is time to proceed. Come with me." He started to turn away when Nora's voice called him back. "Already? It's been what, a few hours? How could you complete the tests so fast?"

The doctor glanced at his controller before he responded to her question. "The two of you have been asleep for approximately thirty six hours. It seems the combination of the flash bang and the anesthesia used for your surgeries disrupted your circadian rhythms and you slept much longer than usual to recover. Now come with me."

Nora and Piper slowly followed him out of the room, Ruby and Lee trailing behind them. Nolan walked by the alcoves holding the table and chair from before as he made a beeline to the second door in the room. She glanced at the far end of the room to see X-Six standing there in what looked like the exact same position as before. Nora couldn't help but wonder if he had even moved at all since then.

The pair of synths followed them into the room and Nora turned her head to watch Ruby press against the wall. There was no indication of any buttons being pressed or anything particularly special about that part of the wall but the door still closed in response to her touch. Her brow furrowed as she tucked the location away for later and swiveled her head back towards the room they had entered.

The Institute must never have had hired an interior designer she decided. The carpet was exactly the same as the room they had been locked in. And the color of the wall paint was identical as well. A thought occurred to her that the uniformity couldn't be an accident, it had to be intentional on the Institute's part. If everything looked the same then there wouldn't be anything to stand out and it wouldn't be a distraction of any kind, not even a small one. It wasn't meant to be looked at, it was meant to be ignored as you focused on

There were a pair of queen sized beds on one side of the room and then Nora's eyes widened as she saw what was far and away one of the most welcome sights in the past two months. A shower. An honest-to-god actual shower. Of all the creature comforts she had lost, a working shower was very, _very_ high on the list. Being able to properly clean herself for once would be a godsend. Dips in a possibly radioactive stream or heating water to fill a bathtub just couldn't compare. Her skin very nearly itched as she felt an overwhelming urge to pull her clothes off and hop into the shower right then and there. The sight of MacBridge pulling a small box out of his lab coat's pocket killed the urge off "You said it was time to proceed so what are we doing here?" Nora asked.

Nolan handed the box to Ruby before he responded "As I stated before, my initial task is to gather genetic material and whatever information I can. The injections both of you received yesterday was part of that. My objective today is the same, but the method will be different. Afterwards you may remain in this room." He looked at Ruby and Lee "Do you understand your instructions?"

Ruby smiled in response, her perfect teeth practically blinding the lot of them "Yes sir, it'll be our pleasure." She turned towards Nora and Piper as the doctor seated himself at a small table opposite the two beds in the room. The female synth pulled the top of the box off and checked whatever was in there. Apparently satisfied, she reached inside and pulled out a thin black square of what looked like cloth before handing the box to Lee. "If both of you can please pick a bed then we'll begin."

Nora's eyes flicked towards Nolan as he calmly watched the four of them, his controller sitting on the table. She slowly seated herself on the edge of bed, feeling the soft mattress sinking beneath her weight. Lee approached her, a square of his own in hand, while Ruby moved towards Piper on the other bed. He knelt in front of her and wasted no time in grabbing the hem of her dress and lifting it upwards.

Nora recoiled at the the unexpected act and crawled backwards onto the bed, seeking to put distance between the two of them. "What the hell are you doing!?"

Lee started to join her on the bed when Nolan's voice interrupted the two of them. Nora looked in his direction as he tinkered with his controller while speaking "Lee and Ruby are following my instructions so refusing to cooperate with them is the same as refusing to cooperate with me."

Nora cursed inwardly at that, but reluctantly raised her arms upwards as the synth pulled her dress off and gently pushed her back to lay on the bed. She grimaced mentally as his fingers deftly shifted her panties to one side and pressed the black square piece to the center of her loins. To her surprise it remained attached even after his hand had moved away. Nora looked towards Piper to see Ruby in the middle of removing the reporter's pants. Her gaze was interrupted when Lee grasped her chin and turned her face back towards him as he pressed his lips against hers. She sputtered in response and pulled away before whispering heatedly "I don't have a choice in what you're about to do, but I am _not_ letting you kiss me like that again."

Whether or not that made a difference to Lee she didn't know as the synth declined to say anything in return and instead opted to roll her to lay face down on the bed. She turned her head to look away from Piper as Lee seated himself over her, one knee on each side of her bottom. Nora felt the muscles in her back tense as his hands settled onto both sides of her collarbone. By now it was dawning on her what they must be after and how they intended to get it. Trying to run away or fighting back would only make them trigger the implant until she complied but passively denying them what they were after... that was possible.

As Lee's fingers began to gently knead the base of her neck, Nora cast her mind about for a topic she could use to try and distract herself from what he was doing. The phrase 'Curse of the Bambino' wasn't coined until near the end of the twentieth century but it was applied to the entire Red Sox history since the year 1919. That was the off-season where Babe Ruth's contract had been sold to the New York Yankees. And that was when had everything had begun to go wrong for her team.

No one really knew the exact reason why Harry Frazee had sold Ruth to the Yankees but there were a few popular theories that had lasted the century and a half until the franchise, and baseball in general, ceased to exist. Financing a Broadway musical, resolving financial debt or even just trying to spite Ban Johnson. Whatever the reason, the Yankees went on to become the most successful team in baseball, winning twenty six World Series titles in the twentieth century alone.

As for the Sox, well they had a few chances at winning the title but something had always gone wrong. Late season collapses, choking in the playoffs, the Boston Massacre, Bill Buckner letting the ball roll through his legs – it went on and on. And then on October 23rd 2077, the Red Sox had won the first three games and were on the verge of breaking a curse that had lasted for nearly a hundred and sixty years.

And then the bombs fell.

Was it even possible? Babe Ruth may have been the greatest player of all time, but baseball's influence couldn't reach that far could it? Nora had never considered herself to be a superstitious woman but it seemed too much of a coincidence to ignore. The Curse of the Bambino causing a nuclear holocaust? It was utterly preposterous to consider but a small part of her couldn't help but believe it might have 'helped'.

Lee's fingers were surprisingly deft as they unerringly sought out the places where she was most tense. He pressed downwards with the heel of his palms, glided his hands along her skin in every direction and used his fingertips on any particularly troublesome spots. Lee's caresses ran from the small of her back, along her flanks and all the way back up to her collarbone as he left no part of her back untouched. Soon enough she began rewarding his efforts with low sighs that just slipped out of her lips despite her musing on the Red Sox's curse.

Nora's thoughts began jumping from one subject to another as she desperately kept trying to ignore what he was doing to her. Each change of topic was harder than the last as her thoughts grew hazier until the only thing she could think about was how amazing it felt to have him touching her like this. The synth couldn't have known she had been trying to resist at the start but a vaguely aroused moan let him know that she was ready for more.

Lee's hands left her briefly as he pulled off his shirt and threw it to the side. He reached down to raise Nora up to her knees before pulling her into him, the skin of her back pressed into his bare chest. Nora could feel his warm breath tickling her ear as his hands began to roam along her hips and midriff. Her breathing quickened as her skin heated underneath his touch and she sharply exhaled as Lee lightly nipped the exposed neck in front of him. His mouth moved up to nibble on her earlobe briefly then started circling his tongue around its outermost parts.

She grunted in surprise but closed her eyes and remained still until his tongue retreated back into his mouth leaving her slightly disappointed. Lee pulled one hand away from her front side as he moved to undo her bra and cast it aside. Nora moaned and dropped her head back to rest on Lee's shoulder as both of his hands settled on her always sensitive breasts. His mouth started covering the side of her stretched neck in love bites as his hands began toying with her bosom. They squeezed and pushed, caressed and rubbed to her growing delight and Nora tried to egg him on further with her loudest noise yet.

Lee was quick to oblige her non verbal request as his fingers moved to her nipples. He contented himself with lightly flicking up and down with his fingertips making them swell and grow erect. Nora reached up with one hand to grab the back of Lee's head and turned her head to the side as she crushed their mouths together and slid her tongue against his.

Whatever remnants of the denial she had planned at the beginning of this vanished as she lost herself to the throes of lust. Resisting Lee no longer mattered, denying Nolan what he sought was irrelevant, spiting the Institute was pointless. The only thing she wanted, the only thing she craved, what she hungeredfor was pleasure. Ecstasy.

Nora let go of Lee and reached down to slide her panties off. She got them to her knees before she had to lay down to pull them the rest of the way off. A loud cry interrupted her as she was was just slipping them off of her feet. Nora glanced at the sound's source and saw one of the most lovely sights she had yet encountered in her entire life.

While Lee had been tending to Nora, Ruby must have had treating Piper just as wonderfully. The other two women were just as naked as her and she felt a thrill running through her at the view. Piper's mouth was open wide, her eyes were half shut and her hands clutched at the bed-sheets as she kept her legs spread for the synthetic woman. Ruby's head turned as she sensed Nora looking at them and gave a sultry smile in response before returning her mouth to the journalists groin. Piper's back arched as Ruby started licking and playing with the other woman's clitoris once again.

Nora glanced at Lee as she heard him unzipping his pants as he began removing the last clothes he still had on. She looked back towards the other bed before making up her mind what to do. Nora turned on her bed so that was facing towards Ruby and Piper before getting up on her knees and elbows. After positioning herself, she pointed at her rear end and gave Lee a meaningful smile then turned to watch the scene on the other bed. As she stared, enraptured by the view, Lee reached in and pulled the now soaked black square off while she was distracted. He tucked it into a small bag and set it on the edge of the bed. The doctor stood from his chair and picked it up before leaving without Piper or Nora noticing his departure.

Nora felt more than saw Lee kneeling behind her as she watched Ruby's finger start sliding into Piper. At the same time, she could feel the synths erection teasing her as he rubbed the tip up and down against her folds. Nora tore her gaze free and she looked back over her shoulder as she started begging for what she needed so urgently "Come on! Fuck me!"

Lee carefully aimed his tip before letting go of himself and taking hold of her hips. Her fingers gripped the sheet as he slowly pushed in, his girth almost the perfect thickness to fill her. Nora felt her kegel muscles tightening around the very welcome intruder until he withdrew before entering again, deeper this time. It took a half dozen more gradual thrusts, each punctuated by a moan from her and her muscles squeezing even tighter each time, until he was all the way inside of. She punched the bed, appreciating that she had such an attentive partner, but the pace was too slow to satisfy her. She shrieked at him in a mix of pleasure and frustration "Faster. Faster. Faster. FUCK ME!"

Lee was quick to oblige her as his hips began thrusting faster and harder, each pump making her breasts jiggle and sway. As he took her from behind, she kept her eyes locked on Piper as Ruby added a second finger. Maybe it was because was being watched or perhaps she was thinking of Nora but something caused Piper to turn her head towards the other bed and their eyes locked as the synths penetrated them.

A slow hedonistic grin spread over Piper's face as she saw the ecstasy both in Blue's eyes and on her face, an ecstasy that Piper shared. Nora started to return the look when her orgasm began, every muscle tensing as it raged up from her toes and out her mouth in a loud shriek. A moment later and her partner unloaded himself inside her as if on cue.

She felt Lee slowly pull out of her as Nora's lungs billowed in and out as she gasped down air. She looked to see Ruby's head buried between those shapely legs and Piper was squeezing her own breasts as the redhead lapped and fingered away. Nora felt a new burst of heat building in her and then she was moving to join them on the other bed.

She laid herself over Piper at an almost diagonal angle while Ruby continued her work down below. The two began sharing frantic kisses as their arms wrapped around each other, their breasts pressed together between them. Piper's face contorted while her hips rose off the bed as Ruby pushed her past the breaking point "Ahhhh! Fuck! Blue!"

Nora smiled as the other woman's legs spasmed before collapsing back down onto the bed. Piper stuck the back of her hand into her mouth as she shuddered once more then grew still. Her eyes shifted towards Nora as she reached up to pull her down for another long kiss.

Ruby waited as patiently as she could, but the two of them weren't showing any signs of slowing down. She reached out to tap Nora on the shoulder "Excuse the interruption but I need to take the bedsheets. There's a shower over there if you wish to continue."

As Piper and Nora got up, Ruby pulled the sheets off of the second bed and disappeared out through the door. Piper reached out to take Blue's hand as she led her towards the shower intent on continuing their thoroughly unexpected spell of wanton deeds.


	6. The Shower

Piper was tugging insistently on Nora's hand as she guided them towards the shower but she didn't need the coaxing. The swaying of the journalist's bare hips was incentive enough to make her follow on its own as she walked ahead of her. She reached out to turn Piper back towards her just as they reached the stall's door. Their mouths came together as Nora pinned the other woman's wrists against the shower's glass door above their heads.

The kiss lasted until Piper pulled her head away and wiggled one of her hands loose from Blue's grasp. Her now free fingers blindly groped behind her for the door's handle and then the door swung inwards. Piper's bottom hit the floor with a solid sounding thump and Nora landed atop of her as they fell into the shower.

Their was a short gap of silence as both women stared at each other before they started laughing at the startled look on the others face. Nora grabbed at her ribs as she rolled off of Piper so that they were side by side and staring at the ceiling. As she laughed, an infinitesimally small voice flicked on in the back of her mind... it sounded grim, but she had no idea why. Piper extended her arm to the side, the back of her fingers brushing against Nora's cheek as they lay there. "So Blue... what now? I'm a little tired but I can spread my legs if you want..."

Nora couldn't lie to herself – the thought of Piper's legs opening up sent a thrill down her spine and made her stomach flutter nervously at the same time. She had been hoping for this that night after she had bought her house but now that it was actually being offered... She reached up to squeeze Piper's fingers as she gave a gentle smile "I'd like nothing more and I'm hoping you'll be willing later but not now. I don't have much energy left after what we just did either and you deserve better than what I can give right now."

After what they had just done. The words struck a chord inside her and that little grim voice grew louder. Nora felt herself shivering involuntarily and goosebumps began prickling on her arms. As she lay there, the haze that had blanketed her mind began to clear, like a fog being evaporated by the sun's light. The events since they had been woken up began coming into focus now that she was able to think clearly.

Nolan and a pair of synths had been there with food. He introduced them and then they had eaten. After that they had gone into another room. She could remember sitting on the bed and then... and then... Oh god.

It was like she had checked out mentally and somebody had turned on her auto-pilot but she could remember every second of it. The overpowering sensation induced by the synths touch as he caressed her until she had lost herself in the tides of lust. Nora suddenly felt sick in her stomach at the memory of kissing Lee and offering herself up to be taken like a dog. It was something she had discussed doing with Nate but they had never worked up the nerve. And Lee hadn't been wearing a condom nor had he pulled out. He had... inside her.

This was... what the hell had happened to her?

"Blue... what did I just do? Am I a slut?"

Nora turned her head sharply as she sat up, the question piercing through her thoughts. She had forgotten about Piper just then. It hadn't been just her in that room, Piper had gone through the exact same experience as Nora albeit with a female synth. She grabbed Piper by the shoulders and pulled her into a tight embrace, their nudity forgotten. " **NO**. No you're not a slut, don't ever call yourself that again. You are not a slut and neither am I."

Piper sniffled as she buried her face in Blue's shoulder, her voice slightly muffled "How can you be so sure? You saw what Ruby was doing to me and I loved every second of it. I didn't even try to stop her."

"I'm certain because I know you Piper. You were the first person I met when I came to Diamond City and we've been traveling together ever since. That's not the kind of person you are and it's not the kind of person I am either."

A stray memory of when she had been backing away from Lee came into her mind. "It... Nolan. He did this to us. I saw him doing something on his pad before I... lost control. It was that implant. Do you remember what he said? It can send signals over the nervous system right? It must be able to do more than just hurt us. He must have done something on his device that sexually aroused us or maybe he made it our bodies were more sensitive than normal. We gave in because of that, not because we're sluts."

Piper's sniffling stopped and she pulled away, her eyes gazing into Blue's. "How do you know? You're just guessing."

"I am, but it fits doesn't it? I didn't want to have sex with Lee and I don't need you to tell me that you didn't want Ruby either. Something had to have happened for us to participate like that. I can't prove it but my gut tells me that I'm right."

"But if he can send signals out like that, then how can you be sure you're right? He might be telling you what to feel or what to say. Those assholes could be controlling you right now and I wouldn't know the difference!"

Nora shook her head in exasperation at how ridiculous Piper sounded "Now you're just getting carried away. I don't want to sound too harsh but your emotions are getting the better of you and you're starting to act hysterical. Remember what I said when we first woke up in the Institute? We need to stay calm and look for a way out."

"A way out?" Piper's voice was incredulous and swiftly rose to a fever pitch as she began shrieking at Blue. "What way out! We don't have any tools, we don't have any guns, everyone here is our enemy, their's a guard with a rifle out there and we have a fucking implant in our necks that they can torture us with whenever they feel like it! How the fuck are we supposed to find a way out!?"

Nora was at a loss for words. Everything Piper had just said was true. Their wasn't a clever solution waiting to be found, no one she could turn to their side, nowhere to run to, anywhere that they could hide. She was loathe to admit it but their wasn't anything else she could say "I don't know Piper... but if we give up then we really are lost."

Piper looked at her for a moment longer before bursting into tears and burying her face in her hands. Nora reached up and turned the shower's lever to one side as she drew Piper into her arms. The shower head spurted once before a torrent of warm water cascaded down over the two of them.

Neither woman seemed interested in moving as they huddled together under the falling water. Piper fell quiet but she could still see tears flowing down her cheeks despite the water that was soaking their heads and shoulders. Nora, on the other hand, felt her mind began racing at a hundred miles an hour.

Piper's raving started looping in her brain as she began to analyze everything that had happened to them since they had been brought to the Institute. Their had to be clues here, something that she could use to understand what was going on here. She threw herself back to the beginning of this nightmare as she tried to dissect this like it was just another legal case.

The conversation with Father, getting sedated and then these devices had been surgically attached to their spinal cords. They had demonstrated one of it's abilities when she had refused to go with Nolan and then had been the physicals. She felt a small amount of vomit rising into her throat as she forced herself to go through what had happened on the beds in her head. It was slow going and Nora had had to go through all of it several times but eventually she could feel the puzzle pieces clicking into place. "I thought about what you said Piper and I think I've figured it out."

Piper's head tilted just enough for one of her eyes to peek upwards at Nora as she continued speaking. "I don't know the limits of the implant, but it can't control us like you were suggesting. If they could do that then wouldn't be any need to torture us if we disobey. They made my jaw shut but that's only a few small muscles. I'd guess that they can't do anything more than that so we don't have to worry about them making us move around at all."

"We already know they can make us feel pain and possibly pleasure but that's them directly transmitting signals through our nervous system. That's a form of control over our body but they're only using that to gain power over our minds. If they had any kind of mind control then they would just use that instead. We may not be able to trust our nerves anymore but our minds are free."

Nora reached down to raise Piper's chin so she was looking up with both eyes "If our minds are free then everything in them is safe. Intellect, reason, logic, our memories and whatever feelings we had before we were brought here. That's something the Institute can't touch with this implant of theirs. So we can trust those."

Piper's face took on an incredulous look as she listened to Blue's calmly spoken monologue "How do you do this? We've been kidnapped, tortured, molested and raped. I've been doing everything I can to keep from falling apart and it don't even seem like any of this has affected you at all..."

The two of them had traveled through the Commonwealth together and at times fought for their lives in the process. When their had been no other choice, Nora had killed others to protect herself and Piper but her distaste for the act had been obvious to anyone who looked. And despite having taken human lives she had remained the same person as when they had first met outside of Diamond City. But now, their was an acrid edge to Blue's jaw and a baleful anger in her eyes that Piper had never seen before.

Piper felt a cold sweat break out on her skin at the sudden harshness of Nora's voice "When torrential water tosses boulders, it is because of its momentum. When the strike of a hawk breaks the body of its prey, it is because of timing. I'm suffering just like you Piper, but I refuse to let it break me. I'm putting it all into a box and and when the time is right, I swear the Institute will pay for everything they've done."

The only response the reporter could muster at that was a small nervous laugh. Seeing Blue's calm veneer vanishing as her fangs came out spurred Piper to make a connection that she had missed up until now. Nora had refused to bring her along during the hunt for Kellogg and she had never understood why. Piper had thought she had offended her in some way but couldn't figure out what she had said. But that hadn't been it at all... Blue hadn't wanted Piper to see her dark side.

Piper reached up to gently touch the other woman's cheek "You're scaring me Blue. This isn't like you. You've been asking me to hold it together and I'm trying but I need you to promise me something. Promise me that you won't let this ruin you, that look I just saw, that's not who you are as a person."

Nora tilted her head towards those fingertips as she felt Piper's concern for her taking the bite out of her cold anger. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. It won't happen again and I swear I won't let this turn me into a monster... Is their anything you want to say? I've been doing most of the talking so far." It was a transparent attempt at segueing to another topic but talking about something else might help put Piper's mind at ease.

It was a long minute before she replied and Piper's voice was almost too quiet for Nora to hear as she tentatively spoke "When... you came over to my bed when we were... was that the implant or was that... you?"

Of all the possible things Piper could have brought up, she had to ask about that! Nora began studiously examining the shower stall's wall above her as her cheeks flamed red. Unfortunately it didn't do anything to make Piper forget what she had just asked "Well Blue?"

"It... was a little of both. I want... I was interested before we were brought here but I didn't know what your feelings were. That night I bought the house, I was planning to ask you about our relationship but that synth showed up before I could get to it. As for the beds, the implant pushed me to it, but I didn't do anything I hadn't thought about beforehand. But I would never do anything of my own free will like that unless I knew you actually returned my feelings. Though I think I have a better idea of what those feelings are now."

"What? What are you talking about?" The journalist looked more then a little bit confused at that.

Nora put on a little teasing smile to try and not seem judgmental or critical "On the bed. When you... you know. You yelled out Blue as it was happening. And you did offer to spread your legs for me when we fell into the shower."

Piper blinked in surprise as she began flushing at the recollection of what she had said. "Oh! Uhm, eh heh. Is this water really hot or is it just me?" She rocketed to her feet and scampered out of the shower, barely slowing to grab a towel before skittering away to the other side of the room. Nora watched her go with a small smile on her face in spite of everything that had happened today.

She reached up to turn the lever switching the water off. Giving Piper some space would be the best course of action right now. They could talk about this some other time and she had the sneaking suspicion that the two of them had plenty of time on their hands.


	7. Bedside

Nora groaned as the lights in the room began glaring through her eyelids. She turned to one side as she pulled the blanket over her head but it was too late. Nora grumbled as she threw the blanket off her and sat up rubbing at her eyes. She cursed quietly as she inadvertently scratched her eyebrow leaving a small red mark in the nail's wake.

Frowning, she rotated her arm to look at the back of her hand, fingers extended. Nora didn't see anything amiss until she looked at her fingernails. She had never been a beauty queen by any means, but she had tried to maintain her appearance as best as she could in this rundown world. The skin on her hand and fingers looked normal but her nails were all a good quarter inch longer than the last time she had looked at them.

She started to turn her head towards Piper's bed when the door leading to the lab outside opened. It was Nolan and one the synths wearing a leather jacket. What was this one's name? X-Four? Or was that the black one with the rifle? The doctor was holding the controller to their implant like he usually did and X-Four was carrying a canister identical to the one that had been used to knock them unconscious for the implant surgery.

As the pair walked into the room towards her bed, Piper stirred and began to sit up. Part of her itched to run or physically resisting but she couldn't see any logical benefit to it. Nora had tried fighting this synth once before and it hadn't gone well. They were faster than her, probably stronger and her kicks had either done no damage or pain didn't bother them. Possibly both.

She contented herself with glaring poisoned daggers at the two of them as the mask was fitted over her mouth and nose. It may have been the logical choice, but she felt a scathing contempt at herself for giving in so meekly as X-Four began twisting the valve on top of the gas canister. Like before, their was no smell to the gas as it filled her lungs and blackness took her.

When Nora came to, she was seated in the same chair that had been used for her pelvic exam. Her dress had been shoved upwards to pool around her waist and her panties were dangling from one ankle. Her shoes had been tossed onto the floor in front of the chair and their was a dull ache in her groin from... whatever they had done to her while she was unconscious. Nora turned her head to both sides as she looked around the room hoping that her current predicament lacked observers. The doctor was nowhere in sight, but that synth was still standing by the door in the exact same spot as the last time she had seen him. This guy had to move sometime didn't he?

She had almost finished looking around the room when she abruptly noticed a camera on the wall directly in front of her. Whether it had been there before or not, she couldn't remember but it was at the perfect height to view her exposed nethers. Her lips flattened as she envisioned a faceless figure staring at her groin through the camera's lens. Nora's legs were slow to respond and sluggishly moved as she lifted them out of the stirrups one at a time. She pushed her dress back down to cover herself before awkwardly attempting to stand. One leg then the other gave out on her and she fell to the floor in a sprawl of limbs not unlike a newborn fawn.

Nora gritted her teeth as she pushed herself back up to her feet once again. Her legs wobbled but she managed to stay standing this time. Her heels had been dropped at the foot of the chair and she took her time in putting them on. There was a spell of lightheadedness but it passed and soon she was staggering along as her legs slowly woke. The door to where their beds were was closed but she had taken care to remember the approximate location of the invisible door switch. Nora reached out with one hand and pressed against the wall. Nothing. Her hand slid up and down and then from side to side as she kept frustratedly trying to open the door in front of her.

"It won't open. Your fingerprints are blocked in the system so these doors won't open for you." Nora turned to see Nolan standing behind her, his ever present implant controller in his hands. "Theirs no need for you to return there at the moment however. Their is a tray of food waiting for you over there." He turned and pointed at a desk near the guarded doorway before disappearing into an alcove hidden behind a curtain. Her first reaction was to refuse out of spite but her stomach grumbled, far louder than it had the last time she had eaten and the sudden spike of hunger was genuinely painful, much to her surprise.

The synth guarding the door didn't stir as she seated herself at the desk, but she could feel his eyes peering at her from underneath those shades. And even though their was no movement and nothing was said, Nora could feel herself becoming acutely aware of the laser rifle he held.

The food tray was laden with a significantly greater amount of 'food' than before and the water bottle had been replaced by a large glass and pitcher of water. As she started eating, it quickly became apparent that it was the same meal as the last one they had served her. The same foods with the same texture and taste but their was two perhaps three times the amount. Nora didn't think she would have been able to eat all of it, but somehow she did, even to the point of scraping every last piece up with a spoon. And the pitcher was empty by the end to boot.

Nora set her spoon onto the now vacant tray as she stood and moved away from the ever present synth guarding the door. Her gait had returned to normal as her legs had returned to normal from whatever drug they had used to put her to sleep. The door to the bedroom was still shut as was the office they had originally been locked up in. She slowly turned in a circle looking all about the lab for a clue to what was going on here. Her gaze fell on the curtain that Nolan had disappeared behind as the only possible answer.

Nolan was standing at the side of a hospital bed, his attention focused on some small computer screens, each displaying what Nora assumed was some sort of medical information. The only one she recognized was the classic heartbeat monitor but the lines were spiky and erratically shifting. And lying in the bed itself was Piper amid a small army of cords connected to pads all over her body. The woman's hair looked damp and their was a distinctly pallor hue to her face. Her head shifted towards Nora as she mustered a weak sounding voice "Hey Blue... you ready to give me that interview?"

Nora's confusion was evident as her brow furrowed and she looked to the doctor "Interview? We already did that. Don't you remember? Are you ok Piper?"

"She is delirious. Miss Wright thinks she is somewhere else or is reliving an older memory, perhaps both. I lack any context for what she is saying but she is at least partially aware of her environment since she responded to your presence."

She reached down to touch Piper's forehead. Her skin was slick with sweat and it felt abnormally warm to the touch. "What's going on? She has a fever. Shouldn't you be doing something?"

His voice was flat and uninterested in the concern she was showing. "I am."

Nora's eyes narrowed as she put the pieces together "What are you doing to her?" The doctor didn't respond as he wrote something down on the clipboard he was holding. Her voice sharpened as she asked again "You're under orders to answer my questions about what you're doing to us. You told me so yourself. What are you doing to her?"

Nolan's clipboard lowered as he turned to look at her, his demeanor plainly irritated at being bossed around by one of his patients. "The simplest way to put it is that her mutated and damaged genes are being overwritten." Nora's face must have reflected her lack of understanding as he paused before trying again. "Father told you that you were brought here because your DNA, like his, is uncontaminated. We have finished analyzing the genetic material that you have provided and now we are in the testing phase. All of Miss Wright's cells that have been damaged by radiation are being replaced based by a serum based off of your DNA."

Nora visibly recoiled and one hand covered her mouth in horror as she grasped the meaning of his words. She and Father had been fortunate enough to escape the Great War and its fallout inside of that vault but everyone else...

None of those who had survived the end of the old world had done so unscathed. The most obvious victims were those who had been turned into Ghouls but those were a minority. Those who hadn't been changed had still been poisoned by radiation, suffered tumors and undergone all sorts of genetic mutations. All of them were in danger now and she was the source. Her blood, her DNA, her very existence was being turned into a weapon aimed at everyone who lived in the Commonwealth.

Nolan looked back at his clipboard as he made another note before walking out and leaving the two of them behind. Nora watched him go before putting her hand back on Piper's forehead to check her temperature for want of something to do. Piper coughed once before spewing a greenish-yellow chunky liquid flecked with tiny spots of red all over herself along with the lapels of her coat before she started giggling "Tell me how you killed that deathclaw Blue. It could be a good story for the paper."

Nora looked around the room for something, anything that she could use before seeing a drawer at the back of the room. Throwing it open revealed a small collection of bedsheets and some blankets for the hospital bed. She grabbed one of the sheets and started gently wiping up the vomit off Piper's mouth and neck. Nora felt a pang of guilt as she recalled bragging about killing the deathclaw during those first days in Diamond City. "I...lied about the deathclaw, I'm sorry. I lost my grip on the minigun when it threw me to the street and then I couldn't get it off me."

Her mind flashed back to that day for an instant. The deathclaw had pinned her to the ground and the monster had locked her helmet in its jaws. Even now Nora could still hear the squealing and crunching of metal as it bit down with those razor sharp daggers it had for teeth .

"I don't know how close it was to getting through the helmet, but if it hadn't been for that minuteman, Preston, I wouldn't be here. That laser rifle of his, he had charged it all the way up and it burned a hole through the deathclaw's skull." Nora set the stained sheet down and put her hand to Piper's cheek "I don't know if you're in there right now, but I'm sorry I lied about it. I didn't want you to think I was a coward when we first met. You weren't the first person I met in the Commonwealth but you were the first friend I had made and I was trying to show off I think. But it was a stupid thing to say and I don't know why I made it up anymore. "

The only response was silence. Whether Piper had passed out or fallen asleep she couldn't say but Nora slowly and gently rolled Piper onto her side. She hadn't the faintest idea how to try and help Piper but at the very least she could make sure the other woman didn't choke on her own vomit. Nora seated herself on a nearby stool reached out to hold Piper's hand with a heavy heart.

Nora had told Father that she wasn't a scientist and while certainly true, the theories of relativity had always fascinated her. Particular the idea that time was relative to the observer. If a person was moving fast enough, say in a rocket ship, they would experience a greater amount of time than someone on Earth for instance. And if their was enough gravity, a person could experience less time than someone elsewhere.

But nowhere in the theories of relativity did they ever discuss what impact emotions could have on how you perceived time. The only anecdote Nora would ever be able to provide on the matter was that those hours spent holding Piper's hand were the longest of her life.

Their was a quiet cough from behind her. Nora turned her head to see Father standing behind her, his hands clasped behind his back. "I wondered if you would come. I have a question for you Father. Do you believe in God?"

One hand came up to rub at his chin "Since you said God, I'm assuming you're not talking about the Children of Atom and that you actually mean some form of Christianity or perhaps Judaism. I've never considered the subject for very long, but I would have to say no. If God exists, would he really have let the world be destroyed by a nuclear war?"

Nora turned to look back at at Piper as she began to speak. Her voice was soft at first but grew harder and wrathful as she spoke. "There's a poem that was written in the fourteenth century called Dante's Inferno, part of the Divine Comedy. In it he describes the circles of hell that are reserved for the sinful. Ruby and Lee are robots created by the Institute and ultimately have no minds of their own, it's all computer code in there. Nolan following orders as well though that doesn't mean he's guilt free since he might actually be a human being deep down. But who gave the orders for all of this? Who brought us here? Who had us molested? Who ordered us raped?"

She turned baleful eyes on the old man who had once been her son "You. All of this was your doing. I've been trying to decide what circle of hell you belong in. The second circle is for those who commit the sin of lust but I don't think it's the right one. I thought about the seventh since we were taken by violence but that's associated with murderers. And then it hit me, you belong in the ninth circle. In the region of Caina where those who betray their kin go. You may not see me as your mother but I am the woman who gave birth to you."

Father returned to clasping his hands behind his back once again seemingly unaffected by her anger "I can understand that you're angry and I'll even admit that's it's not wholly without merit. But you still fail to see the grand scheme of things. This world and the people in it are sick even if they don't realize it. What we do here will cure them and allow us to restore the world that you once knew."

Nora pointed at Piper as she started yelling, irate "The only thing making her sick is you! She was fine before you got your hands on her! It's your damn serum that's doing this!"

Father shrugged dismissively and Nora could see her anger meant nothing to him now "I'll admit this is a disappointing result and that I had hoped for a more promising start but this outcome was not unexpected and some argued that it was the most likely possibility."

"What are you saying? Youknew this was going to happen? Why do it then?"

The director gestured between her and the woman lying in the bed "It's a question of sample size. The human body is enormously complex and the DNA from a single person alone is far from sufficient for this project. We will make it work, but there will be a great deal of trial and error in the process."

Nora felt her self control finally buckle and snap as she realized what he was implying. Piper wasn't going to be the only person who went through this, she was just the first. Father's head twisted to the side as he fell to the floor. Nora shook her right hand to try and relieve the stinging as Father's fingers came away from his mouth with blood on them.

She knew what was coming when her jaw locked itself shut like it had once before but she didn't care. Any pain the implant delivered would hurt less than watching Piper die knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it.


	8. Rooftop

Even with the epidural she had been given, her contractions were still painful. Nora dropped her head back against the pillow as she stared at the ceiling of the hospital room. One of the nurses held out a small cup of ice chips to her "The baby's head and torso have turned again so we should see it crowning before too long. You're doing great."

Nora angrily snatched the cup away and shoved one of the chips into her mouth "Goddamn it, I told you to give me drugs! This still hurts like hell!" She glared at the doctor and other nurse in the room to express her displeasure at the situation. "Where's my husband!? Someone kick him in the nuts for doing this to me!" Nobody said anything but she continued to stare suspiciously at them suspecting that they weren't taking her seriously. She would have ranted further, but her next contraction interrupted what she was going to say.

It was all worth it at the end when they brought her child to her. She reached out nervously to take the swaddled infant in her arms and drew him close to her chest. Nora gave a trembling smile as she tried and failed to keep herself from leaking tears of joy as she cradled her newborn son. The baby stirred and opened his eyes to look up at her and her husband standing next to the bed "He has your eyes Nate. What should we name him?"

Nate reached down to lightly caress his son's cheek "What do you think of Shaun?"

"Shaun... I like that." She planted a soft kiss on the boy's forehead "We'll introduce you to Codsworth when we get home and then you'll get to meet your grandparents." The baby stirred in her arms and he began crying.

Nora jolted awake at the repetitive wail of an alarm going off somewhere in the distance. Her entire left side felt numb from the tiled floor she had fallen asleep on. She groaned as she slowly pushed herself up to her feet. Nora turned to check on Piper fearing the worst. To her relief, the journalist was still breathing but her pulse felt as shaky as it had earlier. The downside was that she was still in the comatose state she had fallen into before Nora had fallen asleep.

Her attention turned towards that alarm that had woken her. A shrill klaxon was sounding every few seconds but there was nothing to tell her why. Nora stepped past the curtain and looked around the lab for a clue to what was going on. There was no sign of Nolan or anyone else for that matter. It took a moment for it to sink in, but her eyes widened at the distinct lack of the synth who had been guarding that door on the far end of the room.

She ran as fast as she could in a pair of heels to the now unguarded door, a tentative hope rising inside her. Nolan had said she couldn't open the doors, but the man may have been lying. Why would they have put an armed guard on a door she couldn't open? Nora slapped her hand against the wall next to the door.

It didn't open.

Nora's shoulders sagged in disappointment and her forehead landed against the doorway with a dull thud. It had only been for a moment, but the thought of being able to achieve something and then being thwarted was even more discouraging to her than not having the opportunity at all. She slammed one fist against the offending door and turned to head back to Piper's bed. Nora hadn't taken more than a few steps when she heard a loud slam behind her.

She spun about as whatever it was hammered a second dent into the door below the first. Nora began quickly backing up as the door continued to shake from repeated blows until a small gap appeared on the edge. A set of metal fingers forced their way through the hole and clamped down like a vise. The metal of the door began to screech as the intruder began to pull backwards. It bent in the middle before snapping free from the frame and being tossed aside.

Nora froze like a deer caught in the headlights as the person in the suit of power armor stepped through the door. The armor looked a bit beat up with plenty of scratches and a few dents but nothing that would make it any less dangerous. There wasn't much in the way of paint aside from an emblem she didn't recognize on it's chest plate. A pair of wings flanking a sword atop three gears, all in white. Just behind the power armor were two men wearing what she clearly recognized as military uniforms even though she didn't know what army they could be part of. Both of them were carrying laser rifles but she was more worried about the enormous laser rifle held by the suit of power armor.

The armored head swiveled back and forth as it swept the lab before settling on her. Nora felt her instincts warning her of danger just in time for her to dive out of the way before a barrage of lasers tore through the air where she had been. She frantically crawled on her hands and knees back through the curtain to where Piper was and grabbed the metal stool she had been sitting on to use as a weapon. Nora held it in front of her as she turned back towards the curtain. She could hear the clangorous footsteps of the armor as it drew closer to where she was standing. "Why are you shooting at me!? Who are you?"

The suit's noisy footsteps slowed and a gravelly voice distorted by the suit's speaker responded "The Institute and all its members die today."

"I'm not part of the Institute! I'm a prisoner here, my name is Nora. And I'm not alone either. I have a friend here, her name is Piper Wright. We're from Diamond City, she's a journalist there."

There was a moment of silence as the man came to a halt before she could hear him speaking to one of the men accompanying him. "Go find Paladin Danse, he knows the Commonwealth better than anyone else in the Order. As for you 'Nora' there's no way out of here if you're lying."

"Yes Paladin Brandis."

Nora let out a small sigh of relief. It wasn't much, but at least he didn't seem likely to shoot her anymore. She let go of the stool and slowly stood, deciding to gamble further. "I'm opening the curtain all right? Let's not do anything we'll regret." She waited for a response but there was only silence in return. Nora grabbed the material and slowly began sliding it to the side and giving them an unobstructed view of Piper and the bed she was lying in.

She couldn't see the paladin's face but the barrel of his gun slowly lowered to point at the floor as he saw Piper's bed. Brandis turned to look at her "What is this? She looks... ill."

Nora pointed at the folder attached to the end of the bed where Nolan had left the records he had been writing on. "Those will explain better than I can. I don't know if everything is in there, but it should let you know what they're doing to Piper."

A moment later and the second soldier was flipping through the documents, his face swiftly growing disgusted as he did so. He started holding the papers up high for Brandis to look at before sticking them back into the folder. Brandis looked at Piper for a moment longer before turning his attention back to his subordinate "Go fetch Elder Maxson. He'll need to see this. As for you Nora, I must apologize for threatening you. I thought you were one of the Institute's scientists or maybe a synth. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry for what's happening to her."

"Thank you." It seemed like an inadequate response to an inadequate apology but it was the only one she could muster. And the man did seem genuine if she was going to be fair about it.

It wasn't long until a man who could only be this Elder Maxson swept into the room with another man in power armor and several other soldiers behind him. The Elder was just barely shorter than her but his burly figure combined with the black hair and bristly beard reminded her vaguely of an angry boar. To top it off, he had an air of someone accustomed to authority and his eyes were those of a zealot. The second person could be Paladin Danse she decided. The power armor hid his body but he lacked an armored helmet like Brandis was wearing. His eyes lacked the same intensity of Maxson's but she could tell right away this man was a Believer but in what she didn't know.

Maxson marched through the lab up to Brandis with Danse following at his tail. He paid no attention to Nora as he stared at the Paladin with unblinking eyes "Paladin Brandis. I trust you have a good reason for calling us here and putting the advance on hold."

Brandis gestured at Nora and Piper "I found something I believe you should see sir. It's... I'm not sure how to explain sir." He gestured at the soldier who was still holding the folder with Nolan's report in it. Maxson took it with an ill humored look on his face but he didn't open it and instead turned towards Danse. "Paladin Danse. You led our second recon team into the Commonwealth. Can you verify that these people are who they claim to be?"

Danse slowly shook his head "Not completely sir. Piper Wright is known in the Commonwealth for her newspaper Publick Occurrences though she's not exactly a popular person because of it. There was an article she wrote about a woman named Nora where she claimed to be a survivor from before the Great War that I remember reading. As for whether these are them, I can't say for certain since I never met either of them and they could still be synths even if I had. But there was a report from three weeks ago that said both of them had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. They were last seen entering a house in Diamond City and then they disappeared into thin air. Ever since then that synth, Nick Valentine, has been searching for them but without success. It is possible that this is them and that the Relay was used to abduct them from Diamond City however."

Maxson grunted in response as he opened the folder he was holding. It didn't take long for the Elder's hands to began shaking in rage as he pored over the reports, reading each page faster than the last. For a moment, he looked like he was about to crush the papers in his hands before he hurled them to the floor. "I knew the Institute was evil and had to be destroyed, but this is beyond anything I ever could have imagined. Why didn't Doctor Li tell us about this?"

Danse shrugged as much as someone wearing power armor could. "She may not have known sir. The sign says this is the BioScience area and she was working in Advanced Systems. We can ask her once this mission is complete sir."

Maxson looked back down at the papers then at Nora and finally Piper as he came to a decision. "Knight Rhys, you will escort Nora to Proctor Ingram. Scribe Haylen, you will accompany them and contact Knight-Captain Cade. Inform him of Miss Wright's condition and have him prepare for her arrival. Do whatever it takes to make sure she gets there. Paladin Danse, Paladin Brandis, we have a reactor to secure."

Rhys was a dour faced man with sunken eyes and buzzed hair. Like the other Brotherhood soldiers, he was holding a laser rifle in his hands and wore an identical uniform to the others. Rhys gestured towards the door as Maxson and the two paladins disappeared through it to whatever lay beyond. "Follow me civilian."

The door led to a short tunnel that opened into a much larger room filled with numerous plant beds and a fair amount of computers and scientific equipment. Laser burns marred the walls everywhere she looked and the remains of older synths scattered all about throughout the room. It wasn't just dead synths either. Their weren't very many but she spotted a few corpses that had evidently been gunned down based off the smoldering holes in their lab coats. The Brotherhood must not be interested in taking prisoners she guessed. She was hoping to see Nolan's body on the floor as they walked through the room but luck wasn't with her in that regard. The most curious sight was a pair of slain gorillas that smelled of burnt hair. She frowned at them before hurrying away to keep up with the soldier.

Rhys stopped short at what Nora assumed was the exit to the outside. She started to push by him, wanting to put as much distance between her and the room where she had been held captive but the knight stopped her with an outstretched arm. "Wait here for a moment. I need to make sure that it's safe to proceed before you go any further." Nora crossed her arms across her chest in annoyance but she wasn't exactly in a position to argue with him. The knight stuck his head out the door as he swiveled his head before raising his hand and waving her forward as he started moving again.

Outside of the BioScience lab was the hub of the Institute itself. Nora came to a halt as she realized the extent of this place. The ceiling stood well over a hundred feet above her and the circular plaza held multiple buildings that curved all the way from the floor to the very peak of the room. And to her surprise, the room had several sizable trees lining the room's inner circle and cascading fountains that flowed in-between all of the staircases. If Nora had come here under different circumstances, she might have called this place beautiful. Her view was marred however by the dozens of destroyed synths haphazardly strewn about like toys that had been discarded.

In the very center was an enormous glass tube extending up and through the ceiling. Rhys gestured to her wordlessly as he made his way down the stairs and onto the clear platform. After she joined him, he pressed a button and the lift slowly began to rise. Below her, she could see Maxson and the two paladins planting something on a door and backing away. The last thing she saw before the elevator cut her view off was an explosion and Danse leading a charge inside.

The elevator stopped short in a significantly shabbier looking room than the places she had seen down below. If she hadn't known what lay beneath her feet, Nora would have thought this to be just another abandoned husk of a building somewhere in the Commonwealth. In front of her was an old computer terminal and Scribe Haylen was talking to the woman standing behind it. Nora frowned at that. How had Haylen gotten up here ahead of them? The other woman was the real curiosity though. She was wearing a suit of power armor but all of the actual armor had been removed leaving just the frame behind. Her somewhat short hair was a darkish red and both of her legs ended in a rounded stump above the knee.

Haylen fell quiet as the two of them approached the computer terminal. The redhead pulled out a holotape from the computer and handed it to Haylen. The scribe pocketed it then scrambled her way up a pile of rubble and through a gaping hole in the ceiling. Rhys gestured at Nora "This is a civilian we found during our assault. Paladin Danse believes she may be from Diamond City but we need you to confirm. Can you run a search for a 'Nora' or 'Piper Wright' Proctor Ingram?"

Ingram's lips pursed for a moment as she looked at Rhys "Scribe Haylen has already informed me of the situation and I just finished looking it up." She turned to Nora, a deeply sympathetic and saddened look on her face "I... I saw all the reports the Institute had on the two of you. If there's anything you need, anything at all, come to me or Scribe Haylen and we'll make it happen."

Nora gave a half hearted smile in response as tears began silently flowing down her cheeks. Ingram muttered something to herself and stomped over to loom over Nora. She reached out and brushed some of the tears away, those clumsy looking metal fingers showing an unexpected grace. "No, don't do that. I know what you went through and I'm sorry, I really am, but this won't help anything." She hesitated as she reconsidered "It won't help anything right now. You can cry later."

In spite of herself, Nora couldn't help but give a small laugh at the Proctor's candor "You're not very good at sympathy are you?"

Ingram shrugged her shoulders and waved one hand at her two stumps. "This happened when I was stationed in the Capital Wasteland. I was on top of a cliff that took a nuke and it collapsed beneath me. The fall was about a hundred feet or so but I was test driving a suit of power armor at the time. It saved my life, but not my legs. I wasn't happy about it but I had a choice. I could have given up or try to put it behind me and move on. After I made up my mind, I modified this suit so I could control it and I'm still here."

"You must have a hell of a time going to the bathroom."

The comment just slipped out before she knew it and Nora clapped her hands over in mouth in horror at what she had just said. Ingram looked at her in complete and utter surprise for a moment before shaking her head and laughing "I like you."

The Proctor turned away and made her way back to the terminal as she resumed doing whatever she had been working on. Nora watched in silence for a few minutes as Ingram inserted and removed holodisks from the terminal. "So what are you doing?"

"I'm copying the Institute's data by Elder Maxson's order. We may be here to destroy them but it's likely they have information that we can put to good use or at the very least keep it out of the wrong hands. And once the Elder gives the order, we're leaving. I'm not sure what he plans to do with you however."

After that, there was nothing to do but wait until the Elder finished his business down below. Nora seated herself on the floor as she waited while Rhys paced the room as if expecting to be attacked at any moment. The only other sound aside from his pacing was Ingram typing on the terminal with those metal digits on her power armor. Eventually the monotony was broken by the crackle of a radio and Maxson's voice came through "Our work here is done. Miss Wright and Scribe Haylen will be going to the airport. The rest of us will be going to the Mass Fusion rooftop."

Ingram finished depositing the holotapes into a box before responding "Roger that Elder." She began typing again as Rhys came to stand near Nora. The Proctor looked up after a minute as she eyed Nora "Ok. Don't move from that spot. You'll screw up the Relay if you're moving during transit."

Nora frowned as she heard that name yet again. "Relay? What is -." Nora was cut off as the room disappeared in a flash of light and she felt herself dissipating. There was an omnipresent sense of _nothingness_ and then she found herself standing on a rooftop towering above the Commonwealth. She stumbled to one knee as a sense of vertigo overwhelmed her "What the hell was that!?"

"The Institute calls it the Relay. It's a device of their own design that allows them to teleport to anywhere they choose in the Commonwealth." Maxson was standing behind her and looking no worse the wear from his trip. "But it won't be an issue after today however."

The Elder moved towards a switch set atop a pair of crates near the roof's edge and began flipping the switches on it. He turned a circular switch to lift a red safety cover over a red button when the Proctor interrupted him. "If I may sir, I think Nora should be the one to do this. If anyone deserves to press that button, it's her. She has more reason to hate the Institute than any of us."

Maxson looked at his subordinate for a long moment before turning to Nora. "This detonator is linked to a fusion pulse charge attached to a reactor in the Institute. Once that button is pressed, the charge will sabotage their reactor and cause a nuclear explosion and the Institute will be no more. If you want to push it, then you're free to do so but I won't wait forever."

Nora stared at the detonator, the weight of this sudden decision weighing upon her. All she had to do was press a single button and the Institute would be gone. All of the stories she had heard about the Institute ran through her head as she tried to decide whether or not she should swing the axe herself. Whether she should set off the explosion that would kill everyone still alive down there, including the man who had once been her son. The Broken Mask incident, the decades of fear suffered by those living in the Commonwealth, the people who had been replaced with synths, and then there was what she had personally gone through. And worse, what they had done to Piper.

As Nora stared out over the city a hot wind from the southwest blew through her hair and the words of a man haunted by the terrible device he had helped create echoed in her mind. " _We knew the world not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says..."_

Nora pushed the button.

 _"...Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."_

There was an enormous but silent flash of light in the distance and seconds later she could hear the thunderous roar and felt a wave of heat washing over her. An enormous plume of fire reached up to touch the sky as clouds of dust blanketed the city in every direction.

Nora took a step closer to the edge of the roof as she stared at where the Institute had been, her face hidden from the people standing behind her. And she smiled.


	9. Boston Airport

The vertibird was a clunky looking aircraft with two large propellers spinning overhead but it still moved quickly despite it's unwieldy appearance. The doors had a small viewport but not much could be seen out of them and Nora contented herself with looking out through the bubble shaped glass at the front of the aircraft.

It had been small at first but steadily growing larger as they drew closer. Nora put one hand on the pilot's chair as she leaned forward to get a better look at the enormous airship hovering over the airport. Ingram looked like she was stifling a grin at Nora's reaction "Say hello to the Prydwen. It took us six years and a lot of elbow grease to build it, but she was worth it. She weighs forty thousand tons, has four jet engines and it's all powered by a nuclear reactor."

There was was a fierce pride and more than a little affection in Ingram's words. It's shape vaguely reminded Nora of the Hindenburg but that ill-fated zeppelin had lacked the heavy armor and small armada of vertibirds that she could see parked on the ground. She let out a vaguely amused grunt "Well, at least Boston Airport is doing what it was built for once again. It's been a long time since I've flown out of here."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Ingram looked somewhat confused by what Nora had just said. "This airport hasn't been used in over two hundred years. It was overrun by ghouls when we got here and we had to clear them out."

Nora grimaced inwardly at her slip of the tongue. The fact that she came from a time before the Great War wasn't exactly a secret since her interview in Diamond City but the Brotherhood wouldn't know that. She was grateful that they had rescued her and were taking care of Piper but they were still a military force whose goals were a mystery to her. She had never even heard of them until Brandis had burst through that door and started shooting at her. "Eh heh... slip of the tongue. I meant it'll probably be a while until Piper gets better and we can fly out of here."

Ingram looked at her skeptically, an eyebrow raised but she let the matter drop as the pilot controlling the vertibird spoke up. "Take a seat please. Docking's always a little bumpy." Nora sat down on one of the chairs just in time as everything began shaking as the Prydwen's docking clamp seized the vertibird from above.

The Proctor slid the door open before stepping out onto the metal walkway suspended underneath the airship. Ingram grabbed the box of holotapes she had taken from the Institute before holding a hand out to Nora to help out her out the vertibird. Nora glanced up at Ingram after they walked towards a door leading into the ship. "What is a 'Proctor' exactly? Some kind of military rank?"

"Close, but not quite. The Brotherhood is split up into several different branches. I belong to the Order of the Shield. Our responsibilities are researching new kinds of armor and maintaining the stuff we have right now. Proctor means I'm the head of that order."

Ingram was a high ranking member of the Brotherhood so why was she escorting Nora around? "So you guys are the engineers?"

"Pretty much, if something breaks on this tub, we fix it. You'd be surprised at how many things can go wrong on a ship of this size Nora."

"Where are we going?

Ingram led them past a paladin standing at the top of the stairs and through a doorway leading inside. She pointed at a ladder leading up into the ceiling "I'm taking you to Knight-Captain Cade's office. He's the ranking doctor on the Prydwen so he'll be in charge of helping your friend." The Proctor stopped her short with one hand as she pointed at the thick steel rungs "Wait for me to finish climbing the ladder before you come up. It's a safety regulation when anyone in power armor climbs this thing."

Ingram grabbed one of the rungs as she started to haul herself up, her suit's boots clanging with each step she took.

Nora waited until she heard the noise stop before peeking up the ladder to make sure it was safe for her to climb without worrying about getting crushed beneath a suit of power armor. Ingram reached down to help her up once again before heading down the corridor and into a room on the left.

It wasn't exactly the cleanest doctor's office she had ever been in, but it still looked functional enough to her. X-ray photos hanging on the wall, a pair of worn medical beds, some stimpaks scattered about and... bones from someone's foot in a box on the floor. Nora began to have second thoughts about this Cade treating Piper but she didn't exactly have a choice in the matter. The other thing of note was that the room was empty except for herself and Ingram.

The Proctor looked around before speaking louder than she had to for Nora to hear her "Looks like Cade isn't here. Guess we'll wait until he shows up." She pulled one of the holotapes out of the small box she was carrying and inserted it into the computer before beckoning Nora over. Ingram began quickly speaking in a whisper as she pushed Nora onto a chair in front of the terminal.

"I have to report to Elder Maxson any information I found out about you from the Institute's network. I never expected to find... what I did. He only knows about the serum they gave Piper Wright, none of the rest. All of the information about you is on this holotape but if something got corrupted that would be a real shame." Ingram wandered away to stand by the door, a bored look on her face but conveniently in the right spot to hide Nora from the view of anybody walking by.

Nora started browsing through the entries that Nolan MacBridge had written. To her surprise and subsequent confusion, the oldest dates on his reports went back three weeks if she was reading this right. That didn't make any sense, it only had been a few days hadn't it? She began scrolling through the first one. Nothing she didn't already know here, the two of them refusing to cooperate, getting sedated and the implant surgery that her and Piper had undergone.

The next entry was the examination after the drugs effects had worn out. It was at this point that she encountered the first thing she hadn't been aware of. Nora had guessed that the implant had been used to make her and Piper receptive to the synths but Nolan had actually tested it on her during the physical itself to see whether that would actually work or not. Her cheeks burned in humiliation as Nora remembered the way she had moaned like a whore when he had stuck his finger in her...

Nora began pressing down on the delete key as she began erasing the text depicting how she had reacted to his touch. She saved the entry before deleting the next one, knowing what it contained without having to open it. The final entry was the most surprising one to her however. She had forgotten about the drugs they had injected her with to increase her egg growth rate. After the episode with the synths, they had put both of them into a temporary coma until the eggs had finished growing. That was why she had woken up in that chair that one time and why she had been so hungry. She went through the entries once again to double check she had deleted everything she wanted gone before ejecting the holotape.

She pulled it free and reluctantly handed it over to Ingram. Truth be told, she wanted to smash the tape right there and then but if the information left could help Piper... "Does Haylen know? She was talking to you before I arrived."

Ingram shook her head "No, she only knew about the serum they gave Piper. With the Institute gone, I'm the only other person who knows besides the two of you. And I swear that I'll never speak of this again. Not even if the Council of Elders asked me about it."

Nora could sense that Ingram was serious but she didn't recognize the group "Why? Are those the Brotherhood's leaders?"

The Proctor glanced out the door for a moment to see if anybody was close enough to hear before turning back to Nora. "Don't misunderstand me. My loyalty lies to the Brotherhood but I'm also a woman and no one should have to suffer like that at the hands of their own son."

Nora's hands balled into a pair of fists at the unwelcome reminder of where the Institute's leader had come from "Don't call him that. His name was Father." She looked around the room for a few seconds "If Piper isn't here, where would she be?"

Ingram frowned slightly at the question "I'm not sure to be honest. This is Cade's office so I don't understand why they wouldn't bring her here."

The radio on Ingram's suit crackled to life and Maxson's voice came through "Proctor Ingram, would you escort our guest to the command deck? You can file your report on your findings afterwards."

Ingram pointed back towards the ladder they had climbed up "Elder Maxson likes to call it the command deck, but it's really just a small area where he stares out of the windows. I'll see you around Nora."

Elder Maxson was holding a few pieces of paper in his hands as she gazed out of one window roughly towards where the Institute had been. He turned towards her as she approached "Tell me, what do you think of the Prydwen?"

Nora shrugged slightly "It's an impressive ship from the little I've seen so far but it wouldn't last long against the fighter jets from before the Great War."

It was something of a backhanded comment but Maxson didn't seem to notice. "Your friend, Piper Wright is down below in the airport. Knight-Captain Cade felt it would be easier to treat her down there. I'll have one of our Lancers take you there soon enough but first I have some questions I would like to ask if you don't mind."

Nora suddenly had the distinct impression of a trap being set, but what she couldn't tell. "What... sort of questions?"

Maxson looked down at the first sheet he was holding as he began to read "View from the Vault part one. I admit Miss Wright is a capable writer but I find her subject more interesting. Nora, a woman from before the Great War but frozen by Vault-Tec. I remembered what Paladin Danse said in the Institute about a woman claiming to be from before the Great War so I had one of our scribes fetch this from the police station Danse's squad had holed up in."

"There are ghouls out there who were alive when the bombs fell but can their memories be trusted after so many years and the amount of radiation it would take to turn someone into those monsters? I've occasionally dreamed of meeting someone from those days and the things I would ask them."

Nora folded her arms, a feeling of dread beginning to rise up in her. This was starting to feel too much like that first conversation with Father for her. "Like what?"

He must have sensed her sudden hostility because he turned abruptly putting his hands up "Don't misunderstand me, I'm just curious nothing more. Your memories are something that no one else in the Commonwealth can offer. Probably no one else in the world. Were things really that much better in those days?"

Nora unfolded her arms and looked up at the ceiling for a moment "In many ways yes, but in others no. Our standard of living was much higher but resources were beginning to run out. Oil, water, uranium... countries started fighting over them. Europe was fighting the Middle East, the UN disbanded. The USA had occupation forces in Mexico, it annexed Canada and we were at war with China."

"The war with China that almost led to global annihilation. I don't suppose you have any idea who launched the first nuke? What happened that day?"

She shook her head slowly as she thought back to that day where everything had gone wrong. "I don't know who launched the first bomb. My husband and I were preparing for a veterans ball. We had the TV on in the background and suddenly the new reporter started saying there were confirmed reports of nuclear detonations in New York and Pennsylvania. The timing was lucky for us since we had just signed up for a Vault spot in case anything ever went wrong. I thought the vault was a joke but the nukes must have already been in the air as I signed that paper. We fled for the Vault, to what we thought was safety but it was some kind of sick experiment. As the elevator started to go down, I saw a nuclear explosion in the distance and after I woke up from being frozen my husband was dead and two hundred years had passed."

Elder Maxson was silent for several minutes before he spoke again, his voice far quieter than normal. "There's a vertibird waiting for you outside. It'll take you down below when you're ready."

She left the Prydwen without another word.

Piper was lying on a medical bed like the ones she had seen on the airship above. She was situated in the corner of the room and was surrounded by thin sheets of a clear plastic on both sides. There were a few slits in the sheets allowing access to her bedside and the Knight-Captain, Cade was checking on her as Nora watched. He moved to the foot of the bed and wrote something down on the clipboard before exiting the makeshift 'clean' room. Cade was a somewhat older looking man, perhaps in his late forties or early fifties with balding hair cut close to the scalp. He pulled his face mask down as he moved towards Nora. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other fearing the worst "How is she?"

"It's too early to say for sure but I think she has a good chance of pulling through. I've been reviewing the papers Scribe Haylen brought back. The serum they gave her had multiple doses, just one wasn't enough for what they were trying to do so the timing of our attack was fortunate. If she had received another shot then Miss Wright would have died for certain. But even a single dose was enough to cause her body to react like this."

"What do you mean? I thought the serum was making her sick?"

He shook his head "Not directly. The drugs are trying to replace all of her cells with yo... cells from somewhere else. Her immune system is trying to defend her by killing all the foreign material and that's what is making her sick. I've never encountered anything like this before, but there are drugs that can be used to suppress the immune system and I've administered one of those. With luck, it'll keep her immune system from killing her and give her the time she needs to heal."

Nora started to move towards the sheets but Cade stopped her with a hand on the shoulder "I'm sorry, but I have to insist you remain out here. Her immune system is weaker than normal because of this and I don't want to risk exposing her to anything." It was a reasonable explanation but she could tell the doctor was lying, at least in part. He must not want her in there because the serum was based on Nora's DNA and Cade didn't want to expose Piper any further.

She sighed and turned away dejectedly. The logic was sound, but she still wanted to go in there and hold Piper's hand even if it was irrational. Cade coughed politely to get her attention "Before you go, I want to discuss the implants they put in the two of you."

The mention of the implant brought her to an immediate halt. She had forgotten about them until now with everything that happened since had woken up this morning. "Yeah, it slipped my mind... sorry about that. Can you remove them?"

"I can't say for certain without being able to study them first. I have x-ray equipment on the Prydwen that I can have brought down here." Nora started to protest but he shook his head "It's not a big deal to me and really I'd prefer to do it anyways. I'll take any chance I can to get out of my office. There's so much more space down here and it makes my job easier. I don't mean to be presumptuous however. You do want me to remove it right?"

Nora couldn't state her agreement fast enough "Yes of course. Please."

He nodded slowly, a chagrined look appearing on his face "Right. And it might be a bit rude, but may I ask if you'd like to take a shower? We have some showers set up down here if you'd like and at this time of day, your privacy would be assured. We don't have much in the way of civilian clothing, but Scribe Haylen found some items that she think will fit you."

He headed for a desk nearby and opened one of the drawers pulling out a flannel shirt and pair of jeans. "She wasn't sure of your foot size so she brought a few different sizes." Nora followed him over and picked out a pair that looked the right size. She gave the doctor an appreciative smile before heading for the door and instantly stopped short the moment she stepped outside.

A steel gantry with multiple levels rose forty feet into the air and in the middle of it stood the largest robot she had ever seen. The machine was humanoid in appearance but it's limbs consisted of giant pistons and it's chest was covered in heavy armor. She could see some kind of lasers mounted on it's shoulders but the most frightening aspect were the very large bombs she could see stored on it's back.

"What do you think? It took me years to put him back together but I got him going in time for the assault on the Institute." Ingram moved out from behind one of the machines legs, some kind of welding tool in her hand and a pair of goggles over her eyes.

Nora looked up at the robot again. "What the hell is this thing!? The Brotherhood built this?"

Ingram laughed for a moment, one hand covering her mouth "No no no. Well sorta. The US government originally built Liberty Prime to retake Anchorage but he never made it to the front lines because of power issues. We found him in the Pentagon's basement and got it up and running in the Capital Wasteland. It's a long story, but he got blown up there and we've spent the last ten years rebuilding him. If it wasn't for Prime, we probably wouldn't have been able to beat the Institute."

Nora's eyes flickered towards the other people working on the robot and she took a few steps closer to Ingram and spoke quietly enough that she wouldn't be overheard "I didn't get a chance to thank you for what you did earlier. You never met me before today but letting me... you're incredible Ingram. Thank you." Nora gave the Proctor's power armor an awkward looking hug before stepping away. "And I figured out the real reason you wear this. It's because your heart is too big for your chest."

Ingram rolled her eyes at that and grumbled "Oh god, you're a sappy one." There was a satisfied look on her face as Nora headed for the showers however.

Afterwards she headed back to where Cade was waiting for her feeling refreshed from the shower and change of clothing. He waved at the newly arrived x-ray machine then gestured towards the table it loomed above. "Please lay down on your back. I'll be taking shots of a few different angles so I'll have you adjust your position a few times."

Cade waited for her to lay down on the machine before draping a lead apron onto her. He flipped a switch and she could hear a few clicking sounds. "All right, please turn to your right side first." Each time she moved, he would adjust the apron before taking additional pictures of her neck. Next was the left side then lying face down on the table. He pulled the apron off and helped her off the table "It'll take a few minutes for the pictures to develop before I can look them over with you."

Once the pictures were done, Cade spread them out on the table for her to look at. She had seen a picture of the thing once before, but having so many different angles now gave her a far better understanding of what this device actually was. Their was a very slender metal box parallel to the spine with numerous small wires branching out and connecting into the spinal cord at various points. He gestured at the photos "There are a lot of cables in there, but none of them are deeply embedded. It looks like they only went as far as they had to in order to keep them connected. Too far in and you risk damaging the nerves or spinal cord. I won't have any problems removing this, but I will have to sedate you for this procedure. Is that all right with you Miss Nora?"

She considered it for about half a second "That's fine with me... and thank for you asking doctor."

As he carefully settled the gas mask on her face and began preparing her for the surgery, she couldn't help but feel relieved that the nightmare was almost over.


	10. Diamond City

Nora spent her days following the surgery alternating between sleeping on an uncomfortable airport chair and trying to keep an eye on Piper. There wasn't anything she could do to help the doctor, Cade, but she had insisted on remaining nearby nonetheless. The days passed slowly but Ingram, and occasionally Haylen, had stopped by to keep her company. Piper's sporadic bouts of delirium had gradually ceased as the week passed and her fever eventually broke. Nora had been asleep when Piper's lucidity returned and she awoke to find Cade standing next to the journalists bed.

The doctor glanced over as she approached the plastic sheets isolating Piper's bed from everyone else. Piper was still lying down on the bed, but it's head had been elevated and she was holding an opened can of water in her hands. Cade waved her through and gave a final set of instructions to Piper "I'll have to double check this blood sample to be sure you're over the hill. I'd also like to keep you under observation for another day after we remove the implant just to be safe. We'll have a vertibird take you back to Diamond City or anywhere else you'd like to go then. Let me know when you're ready to proceed Miss Wright."

Piper took a drink and smiled softly at Nora as the doctor left "Hey Blue, didn't expect to see you sleeping over there when I woke up."

She smiled back as she sat down on the stool beside the bed "What, you thought I'd leave a beautiful woman alone in a place like this? They offered to take me back to Diamond City but I told them I wasn't going anywhere without you."

Piper's cheeks flushed a little at the lighthearted compliment but her response was more serious than Nora was expecting "You really mean it don't you? Why me? I'm loud and pushy. I get into everyone else's business and piss people off in the process. The guards call the jail in Diamond City the Piper Suite. Hell, the first time we met was when the mayor had kicked me out of the city. And that was before... I'm damaged goods Blue. Why would you ever want me?"

Nora reached over to put a hand on Piper's cheek, her voice soft "I know Piper. But that's part of what I love about you. You're not afraid to do what's right despite the consequences. You might not be perfect, but neither am I. But I think you're perfect for me and that's what matters for us. I mean, if there is an us, if you feel the same way."

There was a long pause as Piper stared fixedly at her can of water. Eventually she turned back and reached out to grab the front of Nora's shirt, pulling her closer and softly brushing their lips together. After an all too brief moment, Piper pulled away "I do feel the same way and I want to pursue this with you, but not now. I need some time to come to terms with... everything. And I have to see Nat. The doctor said it's been nearly a month since... and she's been... I need to make sure she's all right."

She hesitated and looked around the room before asking a question Nora hadn't been looking forward to. "Do... do they know what happened in the Institute?"

Nora mentally braced herself knowing this conversation was inevitably going to anger Piper "Not entirely. There's one person who knows about the synths but they aren't going to say anything. Did Cade tell you what happened to the Institute?"

"He said there was a nuclear explosion and everything was destroyed."

"That's right. The Institute is gone and so are the people responsible. The Brotherhood backed up their computers though but the records of... anything sexual are gone. This person let me delete the information so the only ones who know are the three of us."

Piper's eyes flashed angrily and her voice clearly echoed what she was suddenly feeling "You did _what_? You're hiding the truth? WHY?"

Nora sighed "I knew you weren't going to like this but it was necessary." She glanced over her shoulder to make sure they were still alone. "Rape isn't... there's a lot of people that don't respond the same way to it that they would to other crimes. Steal a loaf of bread and people cry thief. Get raped and those same people will call you a slut. They'll say you were asking for it because of how you were dressed. That it's what you actually wanted or that you're making it up because you feel bad about sleeping with someone."

"It won't matter to them that we were victims, that we weren't capable of consent because of the implant. If anything, that'll make things worse because we were 'technically' participating. If people found out, it would ruin both of us, you in particular since people know who you are."

Piper folded her arms as she glared at Nora "You should have discussed this with me before doing something like that. I have a say in this too."

"I know you do and I would have talked this over with you if I could have. But you were still sick and there was no time. I had to make a decision on the spot and I did. It'll never happen again, I promise."

The glare went on for a moment longer before Piper's expression softened somewhat "I still don't like it and I'm not sure if I agree but it's too late to change it now. Is there anything else I should know?"

Nora wrung her hands for a moment before making up her mind "The explosion that destroyed the Institute. It was a small bomb attached to their nuclear reactor and set off remotely... they asked me if I wanted to press the button... and I did. I'm the one who set it off."

"You thought that would bother me?" Piper didn't seem surprised or even concerned by Nora's admission. "I mean, I'm a little surprised that you did it yourself but it's not like the Institute didn't have it coming. I almost wish I'd been given the chance to do it myself..." Piper glanced down at her water for a moment "If there's nothing else Blue, then can you get the doctor? I want to get rid of this implant."

One surgery and a day of rest later saw the two of them aboard a vertibird, identical sets of neatly tied black stitches on the back of their necks. Nora could see what used to be Fenway Park growing closer as the aircraft ferried them to their destination. The two of them were accompanied by Paladin Brandis, looking over-equipped for a simple escort mission in his power armor.

The ship's radio crackled and an unfamiliar voice came through "Subject has escaped initial detainment effort. Subject created hostage situation and used it to escape from city. We have one wounded civilian but local doctors have responded. Subject was last seen heading south, southwest. Subject is armed and considered hostile. "

Nora exchanged a confused glance with Piper as the vertibird banked away from Diamond City and began to slowly circle the area. Brandis was looking out of the doorway, his head swiveling back and forth as he scanned the ground below. And then he abruptly leapt into thin air and plummeted down to earth. His power armor absorbed the impact, but the impact of his landing was loud enough for Nora to hear over the vertibird's propellers.

Nora stood up to better see what was going on and saw a rotund figure in a brown suit and hat running down a street in the distance. The person looked vaguely familiar though she couldn't quite put her finger on who it was. Brandis had begun sprinting towards whoever it was, his mechanically enhanced speed eating up the distance between them.

The escapee spun about as the Paladin approached and his pistol began firing wildly. One of the bullets found it's mark but pinged harmlessly off the power armor. Brandis's pistol answered with a single precisely aimed beam of light and the person in the suit collapsed to the ground. Brandis's voice came back on the radio. "Subject has been eliminated. Will rendezvous at Diamond City."

The lancer flying the vertibird pressed a button on his console "Roger that." The airship veered back towards Diamond City leaving Brandis behind to catch up on his own.

Nora wasn't so much foolish to interfere with a pilot as he was flying in the air but she put a hand on his shoulder after they were on the ground. "What the hell was that?"

The lancer gave her a somewhat annoyed look as he brushed her hand away "My orders were to deliver you to Diamond City, not answer your questions. Have a good day civilian." He flipped several switches and she could hear the craft's propellers fall silent as they stopped spinning. Nora frowned for a moment before picking up the bag holding her dress and high heels as she and Piper disembarked the vertibird.

Nora lingered in front of the baseball statue for a moment murmuring softly to it "Try to bring me better luck this time old friend." The gate to the city was open, but for once she didn't see any of the guards lurking around the entrance like they normally did. Nora exchanged a glance with Piper as they headed up the stairs towards the marketplace. As they reached the top of the stairs, Nora could see a small cluster of people near the edge of the market.

She recognized Danny Sullivan, the guard her and Piper had tricked after the journalist had been banned from the city sitting on the ground. His umpire pads had been tossed to the side and she could see red stains on the lower part of his shirt. Doctor Sun was sitting next to the guard, needle and thread in his hands as he worked on the bullet wounds. Danny looked up as the two of them approached "You were right Piper... McDonough...the Brotherhood showed us proof he was a synth."

"Stop moving Danny. You'll mess my stitching up. Talk later." Sun took the time to make a shooing gesture with his free hand at the two of them.

"Where's my sister doc?"

He waved irritably in the general direction of the marketplace "Ellie has been looking after her. I'm busy now go away."

Piper huffed as she walked away "Nice to see you too doc." Nora gave Danny a last lingering glance before she hurried to catch up as Piper strode through the marketplace. A few people had noticed Sullivan but other than that it was busy as usual. At least it was until they got to the road leading to the detective agency.

Nora had been confused by the lack of guards at the entrance but now she knew where they had gone. There were at least a dozen of the security force blocking off the way to Nick's place as they stood in a half circle around four men. Three of them were wearing what she had come to recognize as the uniform of a Knight from the Brotherhood of Steel and the fourth was wearing a suit of power armor.

Everyone was armed and though the guns were still pointed downwards, many of the guards had fingers on their triggers.

She thought the second Paladin might have been Danse for a moment until he spoke, his voice distorted by the suit's radio. "Move out of the way civilians. Our quarrel is with the synth, not you."

One of the guards shook his head and spat on the ground "Hell with that. Letting you have McDonough is one thing since he worked for the Institute but we ain't giving you Nicky. Now book it out of here or we'll carry you out."

The Paladin remained still as the Knights and guards eyed each other and squeezed their guns just a little bit tighter as the standoff dragged on. Eventually he shook his head "We have higher priority targets to consider. Brandis should have arrived by now. Move out." The Brotherhood soldiers turned away as they headed towards the city exit, the jeers of the guards following them.

As the guards dispersed, Nora and Piper made their way down the street towards the entrance to the detective's agency. A figure wearing a trench coat and fedora stepped into view from around the corner just as Piper raised her hand to knock on the door. "Well now, look what the cat dragged in. I wasn't sure if I'd ever see the two of you again." Nick's voice was dry like normal but he sounded just a tad pleased at finding the pair of women at his door.

The corner of Nora's lips threatened to curve upwards as she started to respond but the door opened before any words came out. Piper spun back towards the door as a glum looking girl stepped out and the two sisters came face to face for the first time since the Institute had abducted them a month ago. Nat's face went white like she had seen a ghost and then she was throwing herself at her older sister fists flailing away.

Tears began flowing down Nat's face as she pummeled Piper wherever she could "Where have you been!? They've been saying you ran away or that you were dead! Everyone keeps telling me to forget about you and move on! Where did you go? Why didn't you take me with you!?"

Piper wrapped her arms around her sister as she lifted her off the ground. "It wasn't like that! I didn't leave you Nat. I can explain." Nora could see Piper crying as she carried her sister into the agency and a moment later Ellie Perkins was shoved outside and the door shut behind her.

Nick, his secretary and Nora all looked at each other in surprise before the detective laughed "Well I guess my office is occupied. Take the rest of the day off Ellie, Nora and I are going to get a drink. Well she's going to get a drink anyways."

The Dugout Inn was sparsely populated with only a few customers aside from the Bobrov brothers, Vadim and Yefrim, and the waitress Scarlett. Vadim looked up from wiping down the bar as they entered. "Ah, my favorite detective in Diamond City and the ever lovely lady from the vault. Welcome my friends!"

"Favorite detective in Diamond City? I'm the only detective in Diamond City Vadim."

"Well that makes you my favorite then! Miss Nora, it's good to see you still among the living. Come, I have a new batch of moonshine that you must try! Scarlett! Bring our guests some food, we must celebrate!" The blonde waitress disappeared off towards the kitchen as Vadim filled a small shot glass for her. He pushed it towards her with an expectant look on his face.

Nora picked the glass up and downed the liquid in one motion. She leaned forward, one hand on her chest and the other on the bar, as her throat burned from the home-brewed spirit. She coughed a few times "That's... a lot stronger than the last batch."

He laughed at the look on her face "Good news then! I'll be putting a lot of hair on people's chests. Well not yours of course." Vadim's face lost it's jovial expression as he looked back to Nick "I hear the Brotherhood has been seen in the city. If you ever need help my door is open friend."

"I appreciate that Vadim, but I'll be fine." The synth tipped his head at a table in the corner away from all the other people in the bar. "We'll be over there." Nick took a seat with his back to the wall where he could see everyone else there. "Of all the people I expected to see today, the two of you were very far down on the list. I tried looking for you and Piper but all I had to go on was some kind of grenade that nobody in the Commonwealth had ever seen. Can I ask what happened?"

Nora lightly drummed her fingers on the table as she considered how much she could actually tell the detective "That grenade you found, it made us tired somehow. After it went off, I didn't have any energy left and it didn't take long until I just passed out. And apparently the Institute had some kind of teleportation device."

Nick nodded slowly as if she had just given him the missing piece to a puzzle "A teleporter... that explains a lot actually. Why no one ever found them until now, how their synths just showed up in random places... and how they got you out of Diamond City. Do you mind talking about what happened down there? After everything that's happened, the two of you are the only people I can talk to that know anything about more than rumors about the Institute."

It took a moment before she realized what he actually wanted to know. Nick had no knowledge of his origin and barely anything more than hearsay. His oldest memories were waking up on a pile of rubble with next to no idea where he had come from or why he had been created. Nora sadly shook her head "I'm sorry Nick, but I don't know much that would help you. I only got a small glimpse of the Institute before the Brotherhood attacked. The only thing I know is that the Brotherhood recruited one of their scientists, a 'Doctor Li'. I heard them say she worked in Advanced Systems but I don't know anything other than that."

He rubbed at his chin for a moment "Well, a name is more than I had yesterday so that's something. Who knows, she might be able to tell me something if I find her."

Scarlett brought out a brahmin steak along with a glass and pitcher of water. She set them down on the table and stood waiting expectantly as Nora realized she didn't have any caps on her. Nick looked up at the waitress once he saw what the problem was "Put it on my tab."

As the waitress left, Nora couldn't help but ask even if was poor manners on her part "But you don't need to eat or drink. Why do you have a tab?"

"People like it when you buy them stuff and you'd be surprised what you can learn once they've had a drink or five. Anyways, I'm going to go see if my office is free yet and it's good to see you again by the way."

She picked up the knife and fork after Valentine had gone and began cutting the steak up. Compared to what had passed for food in the Institute and the tasteless meals the Brotherhood had given her this steak was one of the best things she had ever eaten.


	11. Publick Occurrences(Smut)

Geneva, the onetime secretary to the now deceased McDonough, brushed a lock of hair behind one ear as she considered Nora across the desk. Sitting off to one side was a pair of Diamond City residents who lived in the upper stands. The first was Clarence Codman, owner of the farms that supplied much of the food to Diamond City. He was looking at her disdainfully but she was more concerned with the other man in the room, Malcolm Latimer.

Nora had discussed the two of them with Nick before this interview and what he had told her about Malcolm was disconcerting to put it mildly. Clarence was a run of the mill jackass who thought his money made him better than everyone else but Latimer had strong ties to the Commonwealth's criminal underworld. He had his fingers in just about everything there was. Chems, guns, human slavery, brothels – you name it. And she had already crossed some of the Triggermen before when rescuing Valentine.

Codman was sneering at her "The famous woman from the vault. Just another piece of filth from the lower houses. You really think we should make you secretary to the new mayor, whoever that ends up being?" Geneva had the proper amount of shock on her face at the insult but her eyes seemed to be amused. Malcolm, on the other hand, showed no reaction of any kind as he waited for a response.

She had expected this kind of attack from him and had been prepared. "I'll have to admit your statement is mostly true. I did come out of a vault, I do live in the lower stands and yes I do think you should give me this position. But to say that owning a house on the field makes me filth is pure ignorance on your part."

The man started to sputter but she didn't give him the chance to respond. "You've created social classes based on where your house is located in a baseball stadium. I attended games in this place when baseball still existed before the Great War. You say I'm trash because of where I live but I could apply that label to you if I really wanted to."

Her voice sharpened as she pressed her point home " _I_ lived in the Commonwealth before the Great War. _I_ knew what this region was like before your grandparents were ever born. You're living in the ruins of the society I inhabited and what makes you so great for that matter? All owning a few farms really means is that you're a farmer. _I_ was raised in the world that existed before the Great War. _I_ was educated by some of the best schools in the Commonwealth. _I_ studied law at one of the best colleges in the county."

Nora turned back to Geneva "The Commonwealth is changing. The Minutemen have reassembled and are fast taking root in the countryside. The Brotherhood of Steel just destroyed the Institute and have fully established themselves as a power to be reckoned with. I've met the leaders of both factions in person since I left the vault I came from." She looked at Codman once again "Can you say that same? For that matter, do you even know the name of the Brotherhood's leader?" He glared at her but said nothing.

Latimer shifted in his chair as he decided to include himself in the discussion "You certainly speak better than I was expecting and you've made some fair points I'll admit. But there are those who may see your appointment to this position as an insult considering some of your past actions."

There it was. Latimer was here to represent the Triggermen's and possibly Goodneighbor's interests. Hard to blame them for that since she had killed Skinny Malone in the process of rescuing Nick Valentine. Nora shifted uneasily at the compromise she had to make here. "I suppose that's understandable. I've had to make some tough choices but I'm capable of rectifying my mistakes. In my own way."

She held her breath as Latimer considered her words. Offering a favor to the descendants of the mafia could go very badly but she had pointedly mentioned knowing the leaders of the Minutemen _and_ Brotherhood. He eventually nodded.

Geneva had watched the conversation, the unspoken offers appearing to have flown over her head "So tell me, what could you bring to this position?"

"Well, as I said earlier I have a law degree and I would be able to create an actual legal system for Diamond City as a result of my education. I've traveled throughout the Commonwealth and I've made my fair share of connections. I may not have any experience as an actual secretary but in truth that's just a title and not what the position is actually good for." And if Geneva actually became mayor like Piper thought she would, then Nora would really be the one pulling the strings.

Geneva glanced at Latimer and the still irate Codman "We'll consider it. Thank you for your time." Nora stood up as she shook hands with Geneva and Latimer. Codman scowled at her as he stomped away. She headed over to the window and got onto the lift connecting the mayor's office to the grounds below. The elevator shuddered as she hit the switch to activate it and it began to descend.

It had been nearly two weeks since the Brotherhood had returned them to Diamond City and things were just now beginning to feel normal. Geneva had become the unofficial mayor since McDonough's attempted escape and her position as secretary had become vacant. Nora knew that she was a long shot for the position at best but the job would bring in a steady income. It wasn't ideal but it beat the alternative of scavenging the Commonwealth so she could eat.

She hadn't seen much of Piper since the reunion with Nat. Piper's appearances were somewhat infrequent and the younger Wright sister had been dogging her footsteps during most of them. It was easy to understand why since Piper had disappeared in the middle of the night and had been gone for a month. She knew their father had been murdered and the only family either of them had was each other.

The lift came to a halt as it neared the ground and Nora moved off it and towards the marketplace.

"How'd it go?" Nick had been conveniently standing near the edge of the market as he watched the daily hustle and bustle he had seen a thousand times before.

Nora shrugged her shoulders as Nick fell into step beside her "Hard to say. Codman was as hostile as you said he would be. Latimer seemed like he might support but I'm not sure. And Geneva... well I can't tell if her head's full of hot air or not."

"Well, I don't know if it's true but there were rumors that she was sleeping with McDonough and to be honest she wasn't a bad secretary from what I've been told."

She glanced back over her shoulder at the offices above her for a moment after arriving at the door to her house "Maybe she was, but that didn't stop McDonough from taking her hostage so he could escape the city. I'll let you know what they decide Nick."

He patted her on the shoulder before heading off, probably back to his agency. Nora pulled the key out of her pocket as she unlocked the door and stepped inside. Codsworth was humming some tune to himself as he worked at expanding the wood flooring in the warehouse area of the room. He remained hovering in the same position, but his upper body rotated towards the sound of her shutting and locking the door once more. "Ah, back from the interview mum? I trust things went well?"

Nora shrugged "I don't know, we'll find out. How are you coming along in here?"

One of the robot's eyes extended out further from his head as he looked at the pile of wood they had stockpiled around the corner from her. "I think we have enough to last another day or two, but we shall have to go searching for more soon enough mum."

She had left the robot at Sanctuary Hills to help Preston and the people with him after the fight with the deathclaw but that had been a while ago. Three months of the robot's aid seemed like fair payment for Preston helping her with that lizard to her and Codsworth had been more than happy to come back with her to Diamond City. "All right, I'm going to go check the plants and then take Dogmeat out for a walk."

There was an excited sounding bark as she climbed up through the hatchway and onto the roof. The german shepherd rubbed against her legs before returning back to his doghouse. Nora started making her ways towards the bathtub on the roof but before she got there, she saw Piper moving towards her house the marketplace.

The journalist stopped near the door and looked upwards at Nora as she stood on the roof. "Mind if I drop by?" Nora reached into her pocket before tossing her key down to Piper's waiting hands. She turned and knelt to check the tub as Piper made her way onto the roof.

Dogmeat didn't bark this time, but he did bound over his way over to greet the other woman. Piper laughed and reached down to scratch behind the dog's ears. "So what are you doing up here?"

Nora beckoned Piper over as she pointed at the divided sections of dirt in the bathtub. One was still bare dirt but there were tiny green sprouts poking their way upwards in the other two. "These sprouts are cilantro, and this ones in this area are basil. I have some dill in this third one but I haven't seen anything yet. Mutfruit, tatoes and corn are the only things I ever see people growing. I figured I'd do herbs since no one else is. It's not much but I'm hoping I'll be able to trade these with Vadim or maybe Polly."

"What about the Taphouse? You might be able to work something out with Cooke or Wellingham. Or if you get really desperate there's always Takahashi."

She laughed at Piper's more ridiculous suggestion "How would I trade something with Takahashi? The only word of English he understands is 'yes'."

"Oh you're not giving him enough credit. He tells me all kinds of stuff when people aren't listening. Like your name isn't really Blue for example."

Nora checked how dry the soil was with a fingertip before picking up her watering can and pouring a bit of water into each section. "How have you and Nat been doing? I haven't seen much of you lately."

"We've been doing better the last few days. She's still a little mad that I was gone for so long but she knows I didn't run out on her. That's not why I'm here though... I've been thinking about us the last couple of weeks. I know I said I was interested in a relationship with you at the airport but I still had that thing in me so I wanted to take some time to think it over to make sure my feelings were actually real. What would you say to dinner tonight at my place?"

Nora almost dropped the watering can in surprise "Tonight? I'd love to but I have to walk Dogmeat and run a couple errands first." The dog's ears perked up instantly at hearing the word 'walk'. "What time?"

"How about nine? Does that work for you?"

Dogmeat stood on his hind legs and waved his front paws as he tried to get Nora's attention. "I'll have to break out my pipboy since it has a clock but yeah I'll see you then." She turned towards the dog as Piper began to leave "All right boy, let's go."

She found herself standing outside the door to the building that jointly served as Piper's home and print shop. Nora glanced at her pipboy for a moment just to double check that it was the right time even though she already knew it was. She reached out and knocked on the door twice. There was a moment before it swung open and Piper was standing there with a cigarette in one slightly shaky hand. "Come on in Blue."

Nora glanced around as Piper gestured towards the couch. Aside from the two of them, the room seemed notably empty. "I don't see Nat anywhere? Is she out in the market?"

"Nope, she's off spending the night with one the other kids from her school. Do you know the Reische's?" Nora shook her head and Piper continued on "Not surprising. They're a pretty boring family, not much to know about them, but Nat likes the daughter. Just the two of us here." She took one last drag on the cigarette before putting it out in her ash tray and gesturing for Nora to sit on the couch. "I know this'll sound a bit odd, but close your eyes while I get the food out ok?"

It was a bit strange, but Nora decided to humor Piper and play along for the time being as she closed her eyes. She could hear the sound of wood dragging on wood for a few seconds and then a soft thumping sound. Nora felt Piper's hand gently pulling down on her chin and she opened her mouth obligingly as the other woman slipped something in. She moaned in delight as she slowly ate the chocolate covered strawberry. Nora opened her eyes and looked at Piper in astonishment "Oh my god Piper, where did you get this? I didn't even know there was chocolate still in the Commonwealth."

Piper gave her a teasing smile from her side of the couch "Don't you know a reporter never betrays her sources? And if I control the supply of chocolate then I know you'll always be coming back for more."

"Pfft, you don't need chocolate for that. I'll just call this a bonus." Nora glanced at the platter that Piper had set down on the table. Strawberries and chocolate weren't the only items on it either. Carrots, mutfruit, melon, roasted tatos and silt beans along with a few other dips in the center of the round tray.

She reached out to pick up another strawberry but Piper playfully grabbed her wrist. "Ah ah ah. It's my turn now." Piper closed her eyes and opened her mouth a bit as she let go. Nora picked up one of the carrots and dipped it into what she guessed was honey and placed it between the other woman's lips.

Piper fed her one of the mutfruits but she didn't recognize what it had been covered in"What dip was that? I've never tasted anything like that before."

"You haven't? It's just cheese... you didn't have cheese in the old world?"

Nora opened her eyes as she looked down at the platter "That was cheese? It didn't taste anything like the cheeses that I remember... I do like it though." She shrugged and grabbed a piece of melon as it was Piper's turn.

As the game continued, Piper's fingers were lingering near Nora's lips and she would gently brush against her chin or a cheek before withdrawing. Nora could feel a pleasant warmth radiating outwards through her at each gentle touch and it wasn't long until she was responding in kind.

Eventually though, there was only one last piece of fruit on the tray for Nora to choose from. Nora had felt the mood changing as they had fed each other and the time felt right to step it up. She dipped the strawberry in the chocolate and placed it between her teeth. Piper's eyes remained closed even while Nora moved to sit sideways on her lap. She leaned forward and pushed the berry into Piper's mouth, their lips coming together in the process.

Piper's eyes opened as her mouth closed and she began chewing. She wrapped one arm around Nora's waist while the other hand lightly caressed the top of Nora's thigh. After she swallowed the strawberry, she reached out and dipped one finger into the honey and proffered it up.

Nora closed her lips around the finger as she slid it's entirety into her mouth and began licking the honey off a little bit at a time. Piper murmured softly and the hand around Nora's waist began to creep downward towards the hip below. Once the honey was gone Nora turned back to the platter as she scooped some of the chocolate into her palm and smeared it on the side of her neck. She bit her lip as she watched to see what Piper's reaction would be "Oops... clumsy me."

There was a brief pause before Piper gently pulled on Nora's head to expose her neck as she began sliding her tongue along it to lap the chocolate up. Nora moaned softly as Piper started planting soft kisses on her neck and jaw before their mouths came together once again. After a moment of bliss Piper reluctantly pulled back "So... I know this is technically our first date but do you want to stay the night?"

Nora reached up to put her hands on Piper's cheek as she lovingly kissed her again "If you're willing then so am I."

Piper stood up and took Nora by the hand as she led her up the stairs to her bedroom. It was the first time Nora had ever been up here but the sheets smelled like they had been freshly washed and there no creases from having been used. Yet. Piper gently pushed Nora down to sit on the bed before taking a step back. Her cap was the first thing to go followed by her jacket and then her shoes. A few seconds later and her pants and shirt had joined them on the floor revealing the reporter's distinct lack of underwear. Piper reddened a bit as Nora looked, truly looked, at the other woman's naked body for the first time . "So... this is me."

Nora gave the warmest smile she could. "You're beautiful Piper." She didn't let Piper wait long as Nora stood up and started stripping her clothes off as well.

Piper looked back at her for a moment as well "I just wish I looked as good as you. Your breasts are fantastic you know that right?" Nora blushed at the compliment as Piper lay down on the bed and waited as Nora hesitated. "Is something wrong? We don't have to do this if you don't want to..."

Nora shook her head feeling embarrassed by the situation. "No. I want to Piper, I absolutely do... I just don't know how. I know what to do with a man but a woman? I never even knew I could be attracted to a woman until I met you."

Piper laughed, but in a kindly manner "You really are a fossil aren't you? This isn't that complicated Blue. We both have the same parts after all." She patted the bed beside her "C'mere. You tell me what you like being done to you and I'll make it happen. And then you can return the favor."

She lay down on the bed next to Piper still feeling somewhat self conscious about her lack of knowledge when it came to pleasing other women. "Ok... Well I've always had sensitive breasts. Massaging, squeezing them but my favorite thing is getting touched down here." Nora pointed at the underside of her breasts where the skin folded to meet her torso "And you can play with my nipples too so long as you don't use your teeth and keep it gentle ok? Too much and they start to hurt."

The reporter rolled over so that she was on top of Nora. One of Piper's legs was resting between Nora's as her groin pressed into Nora's thigh. She glided her hands along Nora's arms and up to cup her face as she started covering Nora's face with kisses. Piper ran one hand through Nora's hair before turning her attention downwards.

Piper's hands made their way to Nora's chest as she took a mound in each hand and began gently squeezing and relaxing over and over. Nora gasped the first time before letting out enthusiastic moans each further time her breasts were squeezed. Nora gave Piper an encouraging smile as it continued "That feels incredible."

"Well then, how about this?" Piper pushed herself lower down Nora's body as she dropped her head to take one nipple into her warm and wet mouth. Nora let out a loud cry as she felt a tongue flicking back and forth across her bud. Piper kept her eyes fixed on Nora's face as she kept at it while moving her hands to the other breast. One hand cupped the top and part of the side pushing it upwards while the other moved to begin rubbing the sensitive skin at it's base.

Nora's hips rose off the bed and a melody of gibberish began singing its way out of her mouth. Tendrils of flames ignited in both breasts and set her skin ablaze as they grew and spread through every part of her body. Piper's rubbing moved faster, her tongue licked faster and the flames grew hotter until they burst out in an explosion that left her muscles shuddering and the sheets beneath her groin damp.

Piper moved to lay on her back, legs bent at the knees and feet spread apart. The reporter smiled at her once Nora's brain had begun working again. "My turn."

It was an exceedingly pleasant view but Nora found herself a bit of a loss about her next move. "What do you want me to do? Lick it?" Piper nodded and began to gently rub herself as she waited. Nora dipped her head in-between those legs as she tentatively started licking. Her tongue roughly slid along Piper's crotch from bottom to top before she pulled back and started again.

Piper looked like she was trying to enjoy it but Nora could see the grimaces continuing on her face until she gently pushed Nora's head away. "This isn't working. We can try something else though, let me see your fingernails Blue." She pulled Nora's hands up in front of her face before shaking her head. "These are too long, I have a fingernail clipper here, give me a minute if that's ok with you?"

After getting permission from a shamed looking nod, Piper grabbed her fingernail clipper from beside the bed and began trimming Nora's nail's until they were short enough for her. "Ok, I want you to start with one finger. If it goes well then I'll ask you to add another. Go slow at first and I'll tell you if I want you to speed up."

Nora settled herself back down between Piper's legs as she slid her index finger between those wet folds and inside of the other woman. Her partner murmured softly as Nora moved her arm back and forth, each gentle thrust making it's recipient tremble just slightly. "Ok, try adding your middle finger and going faster."

She smiled and started to oblige the request but Piper let out a sharp cry and pulled away. Nora lurched back up to her knees, startled at the sound. "Did I do something wrong?"

Piper vigorously shook her head "No no no no, it's just a scratch. I'll be fine, I thought I cut your nails short enough but I guess not."

Nora glanced to the side, feeling rather self conscious about how this had gone. "I'm sorry I wasn't any good. What you did was amazing and I couldn't pay you back." Piper sat up drawing Nora into her arms and planted a few gentle kisses on her neck.

"It's fine Blue. You didn't do anything wrong, don't be so hard on yourself. You even told me that you didn't know what to do with another woman before we started. And it's not like this is going to be the last time I sleep with you." She pressed her their foreheads together as she continued speaking "We'll keep at it and the both of us will get better as we go." Piper gave a teasing smile "And once you learn to eat me out then I'll be sitting on your face every chance I get."

Nora blushed at the mental image that brought up. "Well, why not start teaching me now? I mean, we have all night..."

Piper lay back down on the bed and assumed an affected solemnness as she spread her legs once more "Eating Piper 101, let's get started."

Nora pulled a hair out of her mouth after Piper had insisted on ending their lesson. She crawled up to lay next to Piper as the other woman turned to face her, one hand propping her head up as she lay on her elbow. "So what now Piper? I applied for the secretary position but I don't know if I'll get it. And I'm not sure what I'll do if they turn me done."

Piper shook her head and put a finger to Nora's lips shushing her. "Forget about tomorrow until tomorrow. Try to enjoy today for what it is, lying naked in bed with the woman you love." She reached out to caress beneath one of Nora's breasts eliciting a shudder and low moan. "And I'm lying naked in bed with the woman I love."

Nora couldn't help but smile at that as she reached to intertwine their fingers together "I love you Piper."

Piper squeezed the fingers as she replied "I love you too Nora."

Nora, not Blue. That was a first.


	12. Wherever she chooses

Nora rubbed the last vestiges of sleep out of her eyes as she sat up. At her side Piper was stretching her arms towards the ceiling, a soft popping sound coming out in the process. She took Piper's chin in her hand, turning it to face her and softly kissing the other woman's lips. "Good morning."

Piper draped her arms around Nora's neck "Morning doll. How you feeling?"

Nora dropped her head onto Piper's shoulder as she let herself sink against her lover's body. "I feel good, really _really_ good. If I had known you had such magical fingers then I would've asked you to do that to me as soon as we got back to Diamond City."

The journalist shifted uneasily on the bed and a shadow passed over her face "I don't want to be depressing but I have a serious question for you. Does... what happened to us bother you at all? The synths?"

She might not have wanted to be depressing but it was undeniably a sobering question that erased the bliss Nora had been feeling. "I don't know how to explain this in a way that will make sense but I'll try. I was scared almost the entire time we were there, for both of us. I know this sounds fucked up, but the only time I wasn't afraid was when the synths were... you know. I hate what they made us do, but that's from looking back at it. The actual act itself... I should remember it negatively, I should be sad or angry or traumatized but I'm not. I didn't want to do it at first, but they used the implant to manipulate me into doing what they wanted. And they made me enjoy it even though it was rape. The implant may be gone but I can't change how it felt."

Nora looked up from the bedsheets she had been staring at while she spoke. "Does that make any sense? I'm not sure if I'm explaining this very well."

"It makes perfect sense to me Blue. I wish it didn't, but it does. That's pretty much how I feel about it too and you're right, it is fucked up. At least they're all dead now so I can take some solace in that." Piper glanced away for a moment before looking back at Nora "About last night. I absolutely wanted to have sex with you, don't ever doubt that. I love you Blue and I want us to have a healthy relationship. But I wasn't sure if I would be able to go through with it or not. People who get raped have problems with intimacy and I didn't know if that would affect me or not. Or you. It might sound awful but I was also trying to see if we could actually go through with it."

Their eyes met. Nora's calm and somewhat introspective as she listened to Piper's pleading for understanding. "And we did... I hope you're not mad at me..."

Nora shook her head "I won't promise that I'll never get angry with you but not for this. This whole thing is a messed up situation and there's no easy path for us to take even if we're not adversely affected. What I will promise is that I'll do my best to not let this ruin what we have together."

She squeezed Piper's hands before standing up and beginning to dress herself. Piper watched as Nora breasts along with the rest of her body disappeared underneath her clothes before rising from the bed herself. "So what now? I have a bit of spare food if you want to eat breakfast here."

To their surprise, Nat was present downstairs, elbow deep in the printing press as she cleaned the inner workings with a stiff wire brush and a filthy rag. The younger Wright sister eyed the both of them suspiciously before realization slowly dawned on her face. "You two... uhhh... I'm not doing the laundry this week Piper. I don't care if it's my turn, I'm not dealing with that."

Piper put her hands up as she tried to placate her sister "That's fine. I'll deal with it this week and any other weeks where it happens to be your turn and she spends the night here. And what are you doing anyways? Shouldn't you be getting ready for school?"

Nat's eyes flicked from side to side as she pulled her arms out of the press and set the brush aside "What's the rush? There's still half an hour before it starts." Nat picked up another rag as she began cleaning the black stains on her forearms off despite what she had said. "So what's going on between you two? Is this serious or just a friends with benefits deal?"

Nora's first impulse was to laugh but Piper looked aghast at her sister's bluntness "NAT! You know better than to ask a question like that!"

"Hey, what you do is your business." The younger sister pointed at the wall of cinder blocks that hid her bed. "But I sleep under you so if the two of you are doing it up there then it'll be kinda hard to ignore."

"It's all right Piper. It's a good point and I wouldn't want to make you kick her out or anything like that. I have a house too so you could always just come over to my place. Though Codsworth did move in but he can turn off his 'ears' if he has too."

Piper tried to shrug nonchalantly but she still looked uncomfortable with what they were talking about so Nora decided to change the subject. "What do you think of me being the secretary now that Geneva's acting as mayor?"

"Geneva might be acting as mayor but saying she's not very bright is putting it mildly. Who else was at the interview besides her?"

"Malcolm Latimer and Clarence Codman."

Piper picked up the half smoked cigarette from last night and lit it. "That's not too surprising I guess. Codman supplies most of the food the city eats so it makes sense to have him there. Latimer on the other hand, I didn't think he would take an interest if you didn't interfere with his business."

Nora sat down on the couch as Piper took a drag from her cigarette "Well there was the business with Skinny Malone when we rescued Nick. The Triggermen aren't happy with what we did down there. I had to offer him a favor before he agreed to support me."

Piper's eyebrows jumped as high as they could as her eyes widened in shock "You WHAT! Blue, I love you and all but that's a really _really_ bad idea. Do you know what kind of guy he is? The only difference between him and a raider is that he wears a suit."

"I know, I know. But I just needed him to agree to support me yesterday. I spoke to Preston when I went back to Sanctuary Hills though. The Minutemen have been setting up trade routes between the settlements they protect and we discussed the idea of Diamond City being a stop on the way to their headquarters in the southeast. That and they're also starting to move against the drug trade in the area. It's possible that they could get rid of the Triggermen and I wouldn't have this hanging over my head."

Piper shook her head in disapproval "That might happen, but you're playing a dangerous game Blue. Why are you even considering this in the first place?"

Nat rolled her eyes as she headed back to where her bed was, a tin of food in hand. Nora watched her walk off before turning her attention back to Piper "You're right, I'll admit that but what else can I do? This world... it's not mine. I don't fit in anywhere. I'm trying to make a home for myself here but I just feel completely out of place. When I leave my house, all I can think is that I should be sitting in the stands watching the Red Sox play. But instead I live on the infield. I'm trying to move on, to let the past go but it's so hard Piper..."

Nora sighed dejectedly as the words continued pouring out "I thought if I had a job, some way of supporting myself, that would help but what can I do? My husband taught me how to use a laser pistol but I hate violence. I have a law degree but there's no legal system in the Commonwealth. The secretary position was the only thing I could think of that I would actually be able to do."

Piper moved to rest on one knee in front of her and took Nora's hands in hers. "I understand Blue, but you don't have to get involved with people like Latimer for that. You know what, I have an idea. The interview you gave me when you first came to Diamond City sold a lot of copies. People ate it up, it was one of my most popular sellers. So let's give them more."

"Huh?"

"You lived before the Great War. Think how many stories you can tell about what things were like then. We'll make it a running series and I'll split the profits with you. It won't be much but it'll help you get by until you can find something better than selling your soul to Malcolm Latimer."

Nora closed her eyes for a moment before pulling Piper up off her knee and into a soft kiss. "Ok. I'll tell them I changed my mind about the position."

Piper kissed her back and in seconds the two of them were lying on the couch, fingers entwined above their heads. "Oh come on! We just talked about this!" Nora and Piper practically jumped out of their skins from Nat yelling at them and scooted to opposite ends of the couch. "At least wait until I'm gone, geez!" Nat stomped her way across the room and slammed the door behind her as she left.

As soon as the door was shut Nora lay back down on the couch and it didn't take long for Piper to join her, dropping her head onto a shoulder. "Well, she wasn't wrong about that."

Nora slid her arms around Piper "No she wasn't, but it's hard to resist those hips of yours." She playfully squeezed the rump "I claim this as mine."

Piper smirked "You claim it? Naaah, how about a trade? I get your boobs in exchange."

"Deal."

The room fell silent as the two women cuddled each other on the couch. How long the silence lasted Nora couldn't say but eventually Piper broke it. "Any ideas of what a good first story would be?"

The woman out of time stared at the ceiling "Well if we're doing a sort of biography then I should start at the beginning, Where I was born, who my parents were, my childhood – that sort of thing."

"Are you going to make me get up and start taking notes Blue? Because you're really comfortable to lay on."

Nora chuckled quietly "Well, it can wait then. It's not like we're in a rush. There'll be time to talk about my life back then." She squeezed Piper's bottom again "And plenty of time for the future as well."

* * *

So this is where this story ends. If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

I'd also like to ask a couple of questions here. I got some feedback after the first three chapters from Straumoy on Ao3 and I'm curious to see how (or if) my writing improved afterwards.

The second is regarding the non-con elements of this story. Rape's an undeniably dark topic and I knew that I was getting into dangerous waters when I decided to write this story. I'd like to hear from readers on how I handled the matter - the act itself, their initial reactions, Nora's decision on the rooftop and how they felt about it afterwards.

Thanks in advance

-Agnikai58


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